This archive report was first published on 17 May 2020.
On May 15, 2020, Eritrea claimed to have brought the number of coronavirus infections down to zero, becoming the first East African country to win the battle against the deadly disease.
The country's Ministry of Health announced that all 39 patients had recovered from the highly infectious disease, with the last remaining patient discharged from hospital after standard tests at the National Laboratory.
Eritrea has now become the third African country, after Mauritania and Mauritius, to record a 100 per cent patient recovery from the deadly disease.
However, the health ministry stressed that this milestone should not induce complacency, urging citizens to continue adhering to government guidelines until the pandemic is fully assessed.
Since reporting its first Covid-19 case on March 21, Eritrea has enforced a series of rigorous containment measures, including a nationwide lockdown, to stem the spread of the virus.
The country has not reported a single case of the virus since April 18, when four people who had been quarantined contracted the virus.
As part of its containment strategy, Eritrea has quarantined 3,486 people in 70 centers throughout the country, with over 2,400 released subsequently and over 1,000 individuals still in quarantine.
Recently, President Isaias Afeworki broke social distancing rules when he travelled to neighbouring Ethiopia to meet Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa.
Despite Eritrea's success, it is too early to declare the country fully free from the virus, considering its highly contagious and unpredictable nature.
As a precautionary measure, the Eritrean government has decided to launch a 'random and extensive testing' to gauge the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
