African countries are increasing their efforts toward being adequately prepared to tackle the COVID-19.

This comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concerns about new cases outside China.

The pneumonia outbreak was first reported in Wuhan in December 2019 and experts have attributed the outbreak to a novel coronavirus that has since spread across China and abroad.

As of February 25, the total number of confirmed cases stood at 77,779 in China and 2,300 abroad. Some 2,666 have been reported in China (including 2 in Hong Kong, 1 in Taiwan), and 33 abroad. 27,323 have recovered in China.

CGTN had the chance to meet with Dr. Michael Yao from WHO’s Emergency Response Africa Programme, on the continent’s preparedness to fight the virus.