Togo confirms 1st coronavirus case

KIGALI, Rwanda

The government of Togo confirmed the country’s first coronavirus case on Friday.

In a statement, the Togolese government said the patient who tested positive for the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 was a woman, and recently travelled to Benin, France, Germany, and Turkey.

She returned to Togo from Benin by road and arrived in the capital Lome on March 2.

The statement said the 42-year-old patient was currently isolated at an infectious disease treatment center and there were no major concerns regarding her health.

Togo joins a growing list of African countries with coronavirus cases, which include Cameroon, Senegal, South Africa, Nigeria, and Algeria.

The new coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, last December and has now spread to more than 80 countries.

The global death toll is nearing 3,500, with around 100,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO, which had declared the outbreak an international health emergency, recently updated the global risk level to “very high”.