Senegal confirms fifth case of COVID-19

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - Senegal confirmed its fifth case of the novel coronavirus Wednesday.

A Senegalese national living in Italy returned home on March 6, and after showing symptoms of the virus Monday sought medical help the following day before being quarantined, the Ministry of Health and Social Action said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the Pasteur Institute in the capital Dakar notified the ministry about his positive test results for the virus, officially known as COVID-19.

According to local media, two cases of COVID-19 in Senegal among the five have been declared cured and the patients were discharged from a COVID-19 treatment center at Fann Hospital.

On the African continent, COVID-19 cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia, South Africa, Morocco and Ivory Coast, the latest to have reported its first confirmed case Wednesday.

Two out of 114 cases in Africa have resulted in death.

The virus was first detected in December in Wuhan, China.

The global death toll is approaching 4,300, with 118,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak a global pandemic.