International

CORONAVIRUS: China says it has passed peak of the outbreak

Published

4 years ago

March 12, 2020

Progress against Ebola in Congo will be lost if violence continues, WHO says

China’s National Health Commission said on Thursday that the country has passed the peak of the coronavirus epidemic with the number of new cases falling to the lowest since the outbreak began.

This development comes as coronavirus also known as COVID-19 has quickly spread to 114 countries, with the infection rate slowing down in China where the virus first originated.

More than 126,000 have been infected globally, according to the WHO. Of those, over 68,000 have recovered, according to John Hopkins University, which is tracking the virus.

Meanwhile WHO has declared that the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus also known as COVID-19 which has quickly spread across countries around the world is a global pandemic.

“We have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action; ” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday…”We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” he added.

In a related development, rapid test kits that scientists say will diagnose coronavirus within 10 minutes are being developed in a laboratory in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, and are expected to be available from June.

The project at the custom-built DiaTropix facility which will see 2 million kits produced per year and will be distributed directly across the continent is a collaboration between British biotech firm Mologic and Senegal’s renowned Institut Pasteur de Dakar.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now