Passengers arrive from Hong Kong at Cape Town International Airport on January 29 2020. Picture: ESA ALEXANDER/SUNDAY TIMES
No confirmed cases had been identified in Africa by 5pm on Thursday, despite a steady uptick in the number of countries reporting cases of the new virus, known as 2019-nCov. The number of African laboratories that could do testing had increased, and there was good co-operation between African nations to ensure that countries without domestic capabilities could refer specimens to facilities in other countries, she said.
The CDC was preparing for the possibility that the novel coronavirus that emerged in China six weeks ago will become a pandemic, but “hoping it will not”, said Marston. He said his greatest concern was that the disease would spread to countries that did not have the systems in place to detect people who can contract the virus, but there was a “window of opportunity” to contain it.Get our news and views in your inbox