Cabo Verde: Ban on Italy flights extended to 30 April, others monitored – PM

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Cabo Verde: Ban on Italy flights extended to 30 April, others monitored – PM

6:23 CAT | 10 Mar 2020

File photo: Lusa

Cabo Verde’s prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, on Tuesday announced that the ban on flights from Italy has been extended until 30 April and that “tight surveillance” has been imposed on travel from France, Portugal and Spain, due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

“The ban on flights to Italy, taking into account the prevalence of cases,” said Correia e Silva, at the presentation in Praia of a national contingency plan for the prevention and control of Covid-19. “We took the decision in good time and it will be extended until April 30, because we had defined a period of three weeks and we will continue to evaluate the situation of the epidemic in Italy.”

At the end of February, the prime minister had announced a ban on all flights from Italy to Cabo Verde in response to the new coronavirus, a measure that was to last three weeks.

Italy’s government has imposed a nationwide quarantine as of Tuesday in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19, which has already killed 463 people, with the virus having infected almost 8,000 in the country.

As for other countries with cases of the disease and where there is also a large and ongoing flow of passengers arriving in Cabo Verde, namely Spain, France and Portugal, Correia e Silva said that “close screening and surveillance” will be maintained at the country’s airports.

He also announced that all international events in the country involving large numbers of participants coming from countries where the epidemic has taken hold will be cancelled until 30 June.

“This too is a decision that will be subject to periodic evaluation of the situation of the epidemic at global level and at the level of certain countries,” continued the prime minister, who said that the best option is to prepare for “any eventuality”.

The contingency plan is aimed not only at preventing the spread of the virus, but also social mobilisation, self-care, access to information and “combatting disinformation”, he said. “We are facing a serious epidemic, of global scope, with impact on public health and the global economy. We must therefore take a very serious and responsible approach.”

The plan was presented at the event by Artur Correia, the national director of health, who said that it was the culmination of measures being taken even before the World Health Organisation declared the new coronavirus an emergency on an international scale.

Calling for “commitment from everyone”, the plan aims to “inspire” organisations in the country to draw up their own contingency plans and so increase the response capacity at the national level.

The document points to three levels of activation, the first of which is alert, with the country currently without confirmed cases, followed by imminent danger, where it would already have a suspected case of infection with the new coronavirus, and the level of national public health emergency, which would be when there was at least one confirmed case.

In addition to epidemiological surveillance at ports and airports, Correia said, the plan’s focus will be on containing any case that might arise in the country. Another point in the plan is intensive training and awareness-raising among health professionals and other groups to confront the epidemic.

The document, which also defines national and local responsibilities, is to be approved on Thursday by the cabinet, before being publicised nationwide.

Correia also said that all students who had arrived from mainland China and were home-quarantined have already left it; those who are currently in this situation are those who came from Macau. There are also some Chinese nationals being monitored, he said.

The Covid-19 epidemic was detected in December in China and since then more than 110,000 people have been infected worldwide, but most have recovered. The disease has so far caused about 3,800 deaths.

In recent days, Italy has been the country with the largest number of cases outside China.

Source: Lusa