Coronavirus outbreak forces Cameroonian’s after-university activities to shut down — or move online
The coronavirus, first reported from Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019, has spread to more than 80 countries. Cases top 118,000; deaths exceed 4,200. Governments, desperate to manage the flow of patients into health services, have employed wildly different measures. Belgium, France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, amongst others, have closed all their schools. Italy is under total lockdown. The United States has banned flights from most of Europe. India has effectively closed its borders to all foreign visitors. Israel is quarantining all arrivals from abroad for 14 days.
The UK, which now has 590 cases, will take a different path to the rest of the world. It has been hesitant to deploy the four social distancing measures available to it – school closures, limitation of movement, restrictions of mass gatherings and quarantine. And prime minister Boris Johnson announced last night that the NHS will no longer test those self isolating at home, and that the country will avoid lockdowns.
Yet there is an anomaly amongst the chaos that the virus is reaping across the world that may give the UK pause for thought. China, which was recording more than 3,000 cases as recently as February, reported just 26 new cases on Thursday.
Compare this stat to Italy, which reported 213 deaths from the virus, and more than 2,000 new cases on Wednesday – or even the UK, which reported 83 – and the decline appears even more remarkable. The WHO has recognised it as such, praising China’s response, while a new study in
What, then, should the UK, in the early stages of its own epidemic, learn from China’s success?
Epidemics grow for a simple reason – how often people mix. This rate fluctuates with factors like population density, contact between age groups, and, in the case of deriving accurate numbers, how many people are being tested. “When we see cases jump suddenly – for example as we've seen that in the US recently – that reflects a testing capacity issue, rather than being a true reflection of the epidemic itself,” explains Caroline Buckee, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.
Whatever measures are brought in, they share one aim – stemming the tide of sick people visiting health services. “Lombardy in Italy was one of the wealthiest regions of Europe – very well equipped, with excellent human resources and healthcare, and they struggled a lot, because there was a surge in cases,” says Antoine Flahault, head of the population epidemiology unit at Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland.
Egypt has become the first country in Africa to confirm a case of the coronavirus. Health professionals warn that countries with weaker health systems may struggle to cope with a potential outbreak of the illness, which has led to more than 1,770 deaths and infected more than 72,000 people, mostly in China
As local governments in Cameroon delay the re-opening of schools to limit the spread of the new virus, parents and institutions are turning to online education, putting pressure on industry players to deliver. Online classes only now using platform The Government has never encouraged students from mainland to see out a 14-day period in a third country, as they could be impacted by future travel restrictions put in place by those countries Now, it’s the only way for the company to generate cash.
All of the company’s classes have moved online even though they charge less than offline courses —
From helping affected students to transit via a third country to providing a plethora of online learning resources, some universities told CNBC how they were addressing the travel restrictions.
IUBTG said it offered affected students a one-off CFA15000 contribution to offset expenses if they chose to transit in another country.
Cameroon confirm fourth Coronavirus case
The Minister of Public Health has confirmed the presence of a fourth Coronavirus case in Cameroon.
Dr Malachie Manaouda confirmed the fourth case on Sunday March 14 and said the patient was at the Jamot Hospital in Yaounde.
“The suspect patient identified (on Saturday), by our device from the Yaounde Nsimalen airport, on the flight SN Brussels from RCDG and confined to H Jamot, is positive for COVID19. It is the 4th case recorded in our country. I demand even more responsibility and vigilance,”the Minister of Public Health tweeted
House Speaker, Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril was seen this Monday at the National Assembly, taking part in the attribution ceremony of newly elected Members of Parliament, despite calls from many for him to self-quarantine for 14 days, following Government’s recommendations.