There still remained 23,214 suspected cases and 2,788 patients in serious condition
By Michael Jegede l Tuesday, February 03, 2020
MIDRAND, South Africa – Pan-African Parliament (PAP), the legislative organ of African Union (AU), headquartered in Midrand, South Africa, has said that the sittings of its Permanent Committees billed for February 27 to March 7, 2020, would not be affected by the latest epidemic known as coronavirus.
The PAP committee gave the hint as health authorities in China put official death figure to Coronavirus at 425. Over 24,000 people are currently affected.
As of 24:00 on Feb 3, the National Health Commission of China said it had received 20,438 reports of confirmed cases (reduced by 2 by Heilongjiang province after verification) and 425 deaths in 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and in all 632 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital.
“There still remained 23,214 suspected cases and 2,788 patients in serious condition. So far, 221,015 people have been identified as having had close contact with infected patients. 171,329 are now under medical observation. On Feb 3, 12,755 people were freed from observation. So far, 33 confirmed infections had been reported in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan province: 15 in Hong Kong, 8 in Macao and 10 in Taiwan.
Despite these development, PAP said the sittings would hold as scheduled.
“The Government of South Africa has assured the nation of its solid response against the virus. Screening of travelers, especially those arriving from destinations in Asia, has been intensified at all South African ports of entry following the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in China.”
The Bureau of the African parliamentary body said arrangements would be made to complement the measures put in place by the South African National Department of Health to “ensure any potential threat is addressed in time.”
PAP’s Vice President Fortune Charumbira and Vice President Bouras Djamel were said to have taken time to address the issue among others with the Secretariat Staff during their rotation week in Midrand.
The President of PAP, Rt. Hon. Roger Nkodo Dang was quoted as saying: “We can assure our Members of Parliament that the Secretariat will do all in its power to ensure that the Sitting of the Permanent Committees holds successfully amid this global health scare. We however encourage Honorable Parliamentarians to ensure that they carry all their health certificates and that they are up to date with all the vaccinations they ought to have taken.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a coronavirus is a family of viruses that “include the common cold, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).” The WHO declared the outbreak as a global public health emergency which was first noticed in Chinese City of Wuhan towards the end of December, 2019.
