UPDATE 1-Aid worker with coronavirus dies in Nigeria's troubled northeast

(Adds information that the worker had not left the state and
fresh quote from UN statement)
By Paul Carsten
ABUJA, April 20 (Reuters) - An aid worker has died in
Nigeria's northeast after catching the new coronavirus, his
employer Médecins Sans Frontières said, raising fears that the
infection has found a foothold in the troubled region.
The government and aid groups were trying to trace anyone
who had come into contact with the man before he died, the U.N.
Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, said on
Monday.
The case was the first confirmed in Borno, a state at the
epicentre of a decade-long Islamist insurgency that has killed
thousands and forced an estimated 1.7 million to flee, many into
crowded displacement camps. Borno borders Niger, Chad and
Cameroon.
Nigeria's Centre for Disease Control said late on Sunday it
had recorded 627 cases of the novel coronavirus across the
country. Up to now, the bulk of cases have been reported in the
commercial capital Lagos, on the coast more than 1,500 km (900
miles) away from Borno's main city Maiduguri.
The United Nations said the aid worker was a nurse who had
not travelled outside the state.
"Our dear colleague died on 18 April in Maiduguri, and post
mortem test results indicated that they were positive for
COVID-19," MSF said in a statement, referring to the disease
caused by the coronavirus.
Kallon said aid groups were setting up quarantine
facilities, installing hand-washing stations and distributing
soap and chlorinated solution.
"It is essential for the most vulnerable to continue
receiving humanitarian aid, including water and soap or
substitute solutions," he added.
The health commissioner for northern Bauchi state, said a
World Health Organization worker who had also travelled to
neighbouring Kano state had tested positive for the coronavirus.
There was no immediate comment from the WHO.
Africa has seen more than 17,000 confirmed cases of the
COVID-19 disease and around 1,000 deaths so far - relatively few
compared to some other regions.
But there are fears the infection could spread fast,
particularly in areas with poor sanitation facilities, and
overwhelm already stretched health services.
Last week a regional World Health Organization official said
coronavirus cases in the world's poorest continent could shoot
up to 10 million within three to six months according to
provisional modelling.