Africa’s First Coronavirus Patient To Be Discharged After Testing Negative

We have confirmations that the foreign national who was isolated in Egypt on suspicion that he was a carrier of coronavirus has tested negative for the virus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population jointly stated on Wednesday that the person (whose identity is withheld), had shown a “negative” response upon further testing using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analysis, a test conducted on patients with coronavirus.

“After 48 hours of being admitted to the isolation unit in the hospital, further PCR tests revealed a negative result for the carrier of the COVID-19 virus who tested positive last Friday,”

Officials of the WHO have stated that although the foreigner did not show any symptoms of the virus, the person is still being monitored and will not be hastily released.

The WHO's Egypt director, John Jabbour, stated that they “are making sure that Africa is still free of the disease except for the case in Egypt”.

While condemning social media widely held view about the virus, Richard Brennan, WHO’s regional emergency director, stated that “there is no evidence the virus was produced in a lab or as a biological weapon” as suggested.

At a press conference in Cairo, Brennan went on to commend the “tremendous progress” in the fight against the deadly new coronavirus since it surfaced in China last December. He said;

“We are making tremendous progress in a short period of time… trends are very encouraging but we are not at a turning point yet.”

This report comes a week after Egypt confirmed its first case of the virus after a foreigner who was immediately held in isolation last week.

The death toll from the COVID-19 virus has accrued to about 2,000 as at Wednesday, with most of the cases reported in mainland China where 74,185 cases of infection have been confirmed.