Senegal confirms first coronavirus case

The virus has now infected more than 88,000 people and spread to more than 60 countries after first emerging in China late last year

DAKAR, Senegal Mar 2 – Senegal has confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus, a French citizen who visited France last month before returning to the West African country and being quarantined in the capital Dakar.

“The results of the tests carried out by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar came back positive,” Senegal’s Health Minister Diouf Sarr told journalists.

“So far the patient’s condition has not raised any major concerns,” he added.

It is the second confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria, where an Italian national returned with the virus.

Italy has emerged as the European hotspot for the deadly virus with nearly 1,700 cases, while France has reported the third most in Europe, with at least 130.