COVID-19: Carrier of Nigeria's first case is Italian

Nigeria’s first Covid-19 carrier is an Italian citizen. The health minister told a press conference in Abuja, the country’s political capital on Friday

“This is an Italian citizen working in Nigeria who returned from Milan, Italy, to Lagos, Nigeria, on February 25, 2020. He actually landed here on the evening of the 24th, but when he entered his residence in Lagos, it was already the 25th. We started working to identify all the patient’s contacts since he entered Nigeria and even those who were with him on the plane”, Osagie Ehanire said.

This is the first case of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa since the beginning of the epidemic. Earlier this week, two more cases were reported in Egypt and Algeria.

This very low number of patients detected in African countries with fragile health systems is concerning to epidemiologists.

More than 83,000 cases have been reported in some 50 countries, according to the WHO.