Sierra Leone confirms first case of coronavirus

Sierra Leone has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, a 37-year-old man who travelled from France on March 16 and had been in isolation since, the president said on Tuesday.

“When I did my first coronavirus news conference, I said that it was not a matter of if, but when. Well, ‘when’ has come,” President Julius Maada Bio said in a speech on national television.

He did not announce any new measures to tackle the pandemic.

Similarly, the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has exceeded 800,000, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University’s Centre for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).

There have been 800,049 confirmed cases globally, with 38,714 deaths, while more than 166,768 people have recovered from the disease, an interactive map maintained by the CSSE showed.

The U.S. has the most COVID-19 cases, exceeding 164,610, while Italy has reported over 11,591 deaths, the highest among all nations and regions.