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Two months after it erupted in China, Morocco reported its first confirmed coronavirus case, Monday. The Health Ministry said in a communiqué that the man in question is a Moroccan who lives in Italy, the country with the highest number of coronavirus cases outside Asia.
In a press release, the sanitary authorities in Morocco explained that this case has been confirmed by the national laboratory of the Institut Pasteur after the patient tested positive for the virus.
In a press conference held Tuesday, the Health Minister Khalid Ait Taleb said that the patient is a 39 year-old Moroccan who lives in Bergamo, an Italian city northeast of Milan.
The man entered Morocco by the end of February through the Mohammed VI airport in Casablanca. The Minister indicated that at that moment, the Moroccan did not show any symptoms and that his body temperature was normal.
«One day later, he showed some of the symptoms : coughing and shortness of breath», the Minister said, stressing that the patient’s «condition is stable».
The family of the patient and 104 passengers monitored by the ministry
During the same press conference, the Minister revealed that the patient came to Morocco through a «plane that was carrying 104 passengers», adding that they were all contacted, alongside his family members who were in close contact with him.
«The 104 passengers, including the crew of the plane, as well as the patient’s family members have been asked to follow sanitary preventive measures and are currently asked to stay home», Ait Taleb.
The health authorities visit them every two days to check their temperature and monitor their situation, he added, reassuring that none of them have shown symptoms for the virus.
For the record, more than 90,000 people have tested positive for the new coronavirus, which erupted in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The virus spread to other parts of the world, including Europe, Africa, Australia, North and South America and other parts of Asia.
Earlier this week, several countries have reported their first confirmed coronavirus cases, including Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Jordan. More than 3,000 deaths have been linked to the virus, with the majority of them recorded in China.
