Chinese officials have said that they have not recorded any new local infections of the deadly coronavirus for the first time since the outbreak began.
Officials have said they have now “seen the dawn” of an end to the coronavirus epidemic due to this latest progress.
Wednesday’s figures showed that no new cases at all were recorded in Wuhan or the wider Hubei province, where Covid-19 was first reported.
But officials have warned that the risk of transmission still not over.
34 cases of the outbreak were recorded but they were all imported from abroad and only reported in other provinces in Beijing and Guangdong.
China’s National Health Commission said on Wednesday there were eight new deaths bringing the total number of deaths to 3,245 deaths out of 80,928 cases.
“Today we have seen the dawn after so many days of hard effort,” Jiao Yahui, a senior inspector at the National Health Commission said.
Major landmark
With no new local transmissions in Hubei, officials have hailed that as a major landmark in the global fight to contain the disease.
But an official from Hubei’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Li Yang, told journalists that the threat of the virus is yet to be eliminated.
He said infection risk still persists, at both community and clinic levels.
Already in parts of China, schools have re-opened and people have returned to work excerpt for areas considered high risk zones.
Chinese officials are also helping out with the fight against the virus in other parts of the world assisting with their experts and materials.
Africa’s coronavirus deaths have now hit at least 17 as more countries confirm fresh cases with the tally now surpassing 633.
Africa needs help
The World Health Organization has said that it is now “supporting countries with surveillance, diagnostics & treatment.”
There have been new confirmed cases in countries like Gambia, Mauritius and Zambia.
But more cases are being recorded in the over 30 countries that have already confirmed previous cases.
633 confirmed #COVID19 cases in #Africa in 33 countries and 17 deaths. In past 24 hrs, The Gambia, Mauritius & Zambia have announced first cases. @WHO is supporting countries with surveillance, diagnostics & treatment. https://t.co/V0fkK8dYTg pic.twitter.com/5EP26IT3Yh
— WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) March 19, 2020
Meanwhile the WHo has told African countries to prepare for the worst despite the continent being the least hit by the pandemic.
The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is quoted by AFP news agency as saying that “Africa should wake up… in other countries, we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain tipping point.
Source: Africafeeds.com
