PRAIA, March 24 — A 62-year-old British man has died in Cape Verde after contracting Covid-19, the government said Tuesday, marking the West African archipelago’s first fatality from the disease.

The man arrived on the island of Boavista — a tourist hotspot and one of Cape Verde’s 10 islands — on March 9, and began showing symptoms a week later.  

His condition "began to worsen, and unfortunately he died on Monday evening,” Health Minister Arlindo do Rosario said today.

All staff at the hotel where the man was staying are now in confinement, according to the authorities.

The British tourist was the first coronavirus case to be detected in the former Portuguese colony. 

Authorities have detected two other cases on Boavista: one in a friend of the British tourist, the other in a 60-year-old Dutch tourist, whose case is considered worrying. — AFP