African countries may not be conducting rigorous tests to identify the new form of coronavirus, potentially explaining why there are no confirmed cases of infection on the continent, European Parliament lawmaker Esther de Lange said during a press conference on Wednesda
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2020) African countries may not be conducting rigorous tests to identify the new form of coronavirus, potentially explaining why there are no confirmed cases of infection on the continent, European Parliament lawmaker Esther de Lange said during a press conference on Wednesday.
"It is very strange to see that officially there are no cases in Africa, our neighboring continent. So that either means that it has been checked and there are no cases, or there is no checking going on," de Lange said.
The member of European Parliament made the suggestion as part of an EU commitment to rigorously examine all available data being produced amid an outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus. She also doubted whether rigorous checks were being conducted in Indonesia.
"Same for Indonesia versus Australia. There are confirmed cases in Australia, which is of course, having a lot of interaction with mainland China, whereas there are no cases in Indonesia which is just as linked to China, so we are checking the data in order to be as prepared as possible," de Lange remarked.
The Dutch lawmaker added that the European Union had to take a strong, unified approach to meet the challenges posed by the outbreak. This included equipping every airport in the union with quarantine facilities and ensuring that public information regarding the outbreak is consistent across the entire EU.
"The reason why we took this initiative to step up the ambition in terms of one common approach is the fact that we are very well aware that the EU is as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, we need to make sure there is no weak link," de Lange stated.
The new strain of coronavirus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization, was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province in late December and has since spread to more than 20 other countries. So far, the virus has infected over 45,000 people worldwide, resulting in the deaths of over 1,110 people. There are 45 confirmed cases of infection in Europe so far.
