Sub-Saharan coronavirus cases climb with four more in SA

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in sub-Saharan Africa climbed to 16 as the continent’s two biggest economies announced more people tested positive for the disease.

There are four more cases in South Africa, bringing the total in that country to seven, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told reporters Monday in Johannesburg. In Nigeria, the health authorities announced a second case.

All of the new patients are linked to so-called index cases, the first instances of people contracting the virus that were announced in Nigeria on February 28 and in South Africa on March 5.

Authorities in both countries have intensified efforts to prevent the virus from spreading, including tracing people who’ve come in contact with the index cases on airline flights from Italy. Other cases of the illness have also been reported in Togo, Senegal and Cameroon.

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