Ministry of Health announced that 17 new coronavirus cases have been reported in a single day as Ethiopia intensified its preventative measures to contain the spread of the pandemic.
The ministry revealed the figures on its daily update on Wednesday and noted the increase marked a big jump since the first case confirmed on March 13, 2020.
Health Minister, Dr. Lia Tadesse told ENA that the 17 new infections were identified following the analysis of 1,382 samples taken over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 162.
She said that Out of this number who have diagnosed with the virus four of them have no travel history while the rest have a history of recent travel from Djibouti and Somalia.
All the reported cases were in mandatory quarantine in the town of Jigjiga and Afar Regional State, the Minister added.
Furthermore, two patients have fully recovered from the virus raising total recoveries to 93.
To-date, 26, 517 people have tested for COVID-19, of these 162 have confirmed positive, 93 recoveries, and four death recorded in Ethiopia.
Globally confirmed coronavirus cases surpass 3.5 million as the cases in Africa close to 50, 000 with nearly 2, 000 death records, according to Africa CDC.
