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LAGOS, March 9 (Reuters) - Nigeria has a second confirmed
coronavirus case, the country's health minister said on Twitter
on Monday.
The first case was an Italian man who flew in to
southwestern commercial capital Lagos on Feb. 24 from Milan on a
Turkish Airlines flight that had a connection in Istanbul. The
following day he travelled to neighbouring Ogun state and was in
the country for nearly two full days before being isolated.
The case, the first in sub-Saharan Africa, prompted fears of
an outbreak in Lagos, a city of 20 million people in a country
of some 200 million inhabitants. But until Monday it was the
only confirmed case in a country that won plaudits for
preventing a major outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in 2014.
Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said the second case had been
in contact with the Italian man, who is a vendor working for
cement company Lafarge Africa PLC and is being treated at a
hospital in the Yaba dristict of Lagos.
The Lagos state health commissioner, Akin Abayomi, said on
Saturday Nigerian officials were experiencing "some challenges"
in tracking down people who were on the flight with the Italian.