Ethiopia Reports First Coronavirus Death
Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published April 05, 2020 | 09:10 PM
Addis Ababa, April 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Apr, 2020 ) :Ethiopia on Sunday announced the first death of a patient suffering from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, as officials ramped up testing to get a clearer picture of the outbreak there.
"It is my deepest regret to announce the first death of a patient from #COVID19 in Ethiopia," Health Minister Lia Tadesse said on Twitter.
The victim was a 60-year-old Ethiopian woman who had spent six days in intensive care, a health ministry statement said.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also took to Twitter on Sunday to offer his condolences.
Ethiopia, a country of more than 100 million people, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13 and has recorded just 43 in total -- mostly people who have a history of recent foreign travel.
But testing has been extremely limited.
As of Friday, the country had conducted just 1,222 tests, according to the Ethiopian Public Health Institute.
South Africa, by comparison, has performed tens of thousands of tests.
On Saturday, Ethiopian officials announced they were conducting an additional 647 tests "as part of strengthening the COVID-19 surveillance".
The new round of testing targeted health workers, people in the transportation sector who have "direct contact with passengers" and "randomly selected community members" in Addis Ababa, the capital, and the city of Adama in the Oromia region.
It was intended to help determine whether there has been undetected community transmission, said Dr Adisu Kebede, director of national laboratory capacity building.
"There are also a few cases that we identified that have no travel history and things like that, and from their contacts, you can guess that there is community transmission already," Adisu said.
"The WHO recommended 'test, test, test,' so we had to test more people," he added.
The country has "around 23,000" testing kits available, the vast majority of them donated last month by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, Adisu said.
It has no rapid testing capacity, and its facilities can currently process no more than 500 tests per day, he said, though the goal is to push that figure to over 1,000 by the end of the month.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
HEC reviews curricula for environmental sciences degree programme
ICC Asia looking forward to an action-packed Asia Cricket Week
Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 Ambassador
Greece hands Olympic flame to 2024 Paris Games hosts
Two Kyiv hospitals evacuating over feared Russian strikes
World must act on neurotech revolution, say experts
Charles & Catherine's cancer diagnoses
Champions Alcaraz and Sabalenka through in Madrid Open
King Charles to resume some public duties during cancer treatment: palace
US defense chief announces $6 bn in security aid for Ukraine
Heavy rains cause damage to Spezand-Taftan railway track
Woman stabbed in Israel, attacker killed: police
More Stories From Miscellaneous
-
Modern Education Techniques: A pathway to achieve economic development
19 hours ago -
Kite Flying: From cultural festival to deadly sport
19 hours ago -
PDMA predicts gusty wind, rain with thunder, hails
3 days ago -
Iranian president Raisi given guard of honour at PM House
5 days ago -
Intellectuals, writers accolades Naseer Mirza on his literary contribution
5 days ago -
Bahawalpur Adabi Sangat hosts memorable mushaira
6 days ago
-
Cattle farming vital to alleviate poverty in rural areas
6 days ago -
Pakistan: A land of tourism, archeological wonders
6 days ago -
Transforming education sector: from job hunters to job creators
8 days ago -
Amjad Bobby remembered on 19th death anniversary for timeless contributions to music
12 days ago -
Legendary actor Nadeem’s 26 films released on Eid-ul-Fitr days in 50 years
12 days ago -
Besant Hall Cultural Centre to celebrate evening with Sanam Marvi on 26 April
13 days ago