Guinea recorded its first death from a new coronavirus on Tuesday, an official on national television said. A 75-year-old Lebanese man who had been diagnosed with the virus but chose to self-contain himself presented to doctors in respiratory distress on Tuesday morning, but could not be saved, said the director general of the Health Security Agency, Sakoba Keïta.
Guinea officially declared 363 cases of contamination on Tuesday. Poor despite significant natural resources, it is one of those countries where the state of the health system is causing concern in the face of the pandemic. The country had been severely affected by the haemorrhagic fever due to the Ebola virus, which had killed 2,500 people there between the end of 2013 and 2016.
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President Alpha Condé himself spoke on Monday evening of the "worrying pace" at which the virus is spreading and the risk that the country will be overwhelmed. He announced his decision to impose the wearing of the mask from Saturday. "Any offender will be prevented from traveling and a civil disobedience tax of 30,000 Guinean francs (2.8 euros) will be imposed," he said in an address.
He called on all companies, all ministries and all national and international NGOs to provide masks to their employees by Saturday. He also called for mobilization for the production of local masks, which should not be sold for more than 2,500 Guinean francs each (0.23 euros). These provisions are in addition to those already in place, such as the establishment of a night curfew, the closing of schools, borders and places of worship as well as restrictions on gatherings.