American businessman Bill Gates warned that if the new Corona virus spreads in Africa, the situation could become more tragic than it is in China so far, as whole cities were closed to contain the disease.
Gates said yesterday that if the disease spreads in Africa, the situation will be "more tragic than in China."
"I am not trying to downplay what is happening in China," he added, at a conference of the American Association for Advanced Science in Seattle.
He added that the Corona or Covid 19 virus, which has infected more than 66,000 people and killed more than 1,500 in China, could expose the world to "a potentially very bad situation."
"It is a huge challenge."
He stressed that «there is a lot that we do not know about this current epidemic, but there is a lot that we know shows that this can be a very tragic thing, especially when it spreads in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia».
Outside the Chinese mainland, there are hundreds of confirmed infections worldwide.
And the Egyptian Ministry of Health confirmed in a statement yesterday that the first case of the virus was discovered by a "foreigner" according to the ministry, where it was isolated.
The foundation, run by Gates and his wife, Linda, raised nearly $ 100 million in funds to fight the epidemic and develop a vaccine.