Worldwide, it is very difficult to find a country that is unaffected by the effects of the novel Coronavirus pandemic. The virus has hit a milestone in the sense that it has infected at least 3 million people worldwide with at least 1 million of those being in the United States of America.
The virus seems to lose steam at least in the sense that the United States which is currently the epicenter of the pandemic recorded about 1,100 deaths yesterday. The highest ever recorded in that country was a death of 2,500 within 24 hours in April 15. The novel Coronavirus was first discovered in Wuhan province, China in December 2019 and is thought to have emerged from a wet sea market in the Asian country. The disease is believed to have crossed species from animals, probably bats, and is thought to been passed to humans by people consuming infected animal meat in China. Once people get the disease, they pass it through various methods including inhaling droplets of the virus present in other people’s saliva and mucous via coughing and sneezing or touching infected surfaces.
It has been found that the novel coronavirus has varying survival times on different surfaces. So how long does the virus stays on surfaces? It depends on the type of surface.
- Plastic Surfaces———-5 Days
- Aluminum(e.g cooking sufurias–2-8 Days
- Surgical Glove/Latex——8 hours
- Steel Surfaces———–48 hours
- Wood (e.g tables)——–4 days
- Glass (e.g windows)——4 days
- Paper (e.g books)——–4-5 days
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Adds Six More Symptoms of COVID-19
Up this point, the known symptoms of the novel Coronavirus (COVID19) has been the following:
- Fever
- Cough
- Difficult breathing
- Pneumonia in both lungs
- Chest pain
- Runny nose
But today, United States’ CDC added six more symptoms of COVID-19 including the following:
- Chills
- Repeated chills
- Headache
- Muscle pain
- Sour throat
- Loss of taste or smell.
The above symptoms will not be anything new in Africa because they are similar to symptoms of malaria so to make an accurate diagnosis, African doctors will have to look at the bigger picture meaning they will have to do blood work to rule out COVID-19 first before they can embark in malaria treatment.
What is the Government of Kenya Saying about Preventing Covid-19?
The government of Kenya is trying to accelerate the testing for the novel corona virus. Kenya aims to test 250,000 people by June 2020. But this is easier said than done because up to now, Kemri has not tested even half of that number with only approximately 33 days remaining before that deadline. Yesterday, the Health CS Mr Kagwe demoted the head of Kemri due to delays in releasing Covid-19 tests amid serious blow-back from the general public. Meanwhile, the government has put the following guidelines geared towards preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus in Kenya:
In Kenya, currently, there are at least 341 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 14 deaths. While there are at least 39,000 confirmed cases and 1,500 deaths in the whole continent of Africa. The most affected countries in Africa includes Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Ghana and Guinea.
