Sudan takes measures against coronavirus

The Sudan Ministry of Health has decided to set up seven checkpoints to monitor the movement of people entering the country as part of precautionary steps to prevent the coronavirus* from entering the country. About 21 travellers from China were already screened and examined on Saturday, 20 of them in Khartoum and one from El Gezira State.

On Monday, during a meeting with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of health, Sarah Abdelazim, the High Committee for monitoring the coronavirus confirmed setting up seven checkpoints as precautionary measures.

The checkpoints are at Khartoum Airport, Port Sudan Airport, and Port Sudan Port as well as four other checkpoints in the Northern State and two isolation centres in Khartoum Hospital and the airport.

The ministry of health confirmed that no suspected cases have been recorded in the country yet.

The director of the Ministry’s General Emergency Department, doctor Babiker El Magboul confirmed that 21 travellers from China were surveyed and examined on Saturday, including 20 in Khartoum and one from El Gezira state.

The coronavirus outbreak has killed at least 106 people in China and infected more than 4,520 globally, most of them in China.

More than 56 million people in Chinese cities including Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province and epicentre of the outbreak have been banned from travelling in an attempt to restrain the spread of the outbreak during the Lunar New Year.

The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) is currently in China. The agency has acknowledged the respiratory illness is an emergency in China but say it is too early to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. It has described the global risk from the virus as high.

* According to the WHO, Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.

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