(Ecofin Agency) - Gabon has come up with strict security measures regarding the coronavirus currently spreading in China and other countries around the world. In a press statement on February 7, the Health Ministry announced that “the government has decided to refuse entry into the territory to any traveler coming from China, until further notice, in a move to prevent the possible spread of the virus in the country.”

The coronavirus has already spread to 26 countries from Wuhan, China, where it was first detected. The statement stressed that no case of contamination has been recorded among the Gabonese community living in China, and the government is following up the situation.

As a reminder, there are no direct lines between Gabon and China so the effective implementation of the measure could be biased in certain ways.

The 2019-nCoV coronavirus has killed more than 900 people in mainland China, where the number of people infected exceeds 40,000, according to the official statistics published today. The World Health Organization said this weekend that the daily number of infections has stabilized.

Romuald Ngueyap