From midnight on Wednesday, all airlines from France and Italy will be suspended in Senegal. Other European countries, such as Spain, Belgium, and Portugal, as well as some African countries, including Algeria and Tunisia, in the Maghreb, are also affected by this measure.
The Minister of Tourism and Air Transport, Alioune Sarr, explained that this decision was aimed at “preventing the country from being a space for the transmission and propagation of Covid 19”. This West African country now has 27 cases, two of which have been declared cured.
These measures will be applied for one month, added Minister of Tourism and Air Transport. According to him, they should help “stop the direct and indirect flow from risk areas” in order to “reduce the chain of transmission and minimize its impact”.
Only medical evacuation flights can continue to arrive from the countries concerned as well as cargo flights, but the crews must remain on board, and the stopover time must be reduced to the strict minimum. These measures, notes Minister Sarr, are in line with the decisions taken on Saturday, March 14, by Senegalese President Macky Sall.
In Senegal, the first case of which was confirmed on March 2, has 27 listed cases on Monday. Two of these infected patients, a French and a British, were declared cured by the health authorities. The last case tested positive is a Frenchman over 60 years old. It is the only positive case among nine samples that the Institut Pasteur had tested, according to the results of a biological examination submitted to the Ministry of Health and made public during a press briefing Monday afternoon.
The alert cell was seized for this case on Sunday, and the patient has returned to Senegal a week earlier, noted the Minister of Health and Social Action, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr.
