Cairo, Egypt, 14 February 2020

The traveller was dressed in casual clothes: t-shirt over Chinos and trainers. As he exited the plane at Cairo’s international airport, the man who looked to be in his early thirties hefted his backpack unto his shoulder and joined the other passengers as they filed out of the plane. February in Cairo was dry and cool. The air should have felt welcoming, but our traveller shivered as he exited the aircraft and began the short walk to immigrations and border control. He had flown in from China where the temperature was still in single digits, but it did not feel this cold. Was the anxiety of the last few weeks getting to him? His country had only weeks ago announced the release of the Heroic 8, a group of eight individuals arrested early in January for spreading false rumours about a new SARS-like virus. Our traveller would have been on Weibo and noticed that formerly forbidden topics, like this new illness, were now being discussed freely.

The atmosphere and his mood did not improve when he was inside the terminal. He walked past a cluster of porters waiting with wheelchairs for passengers in need of assistance. “Marhaban bikum fii misr,” one of the porters said to him. The traveller’s

Arabic was passable, and he knew enough to discern that the man was welcoming him to Egypt. “Shukran,” he replied. At the immigration desk, he and several members of his flight were motioned to a specific queue. He submitted his passport to the officer.

“Where have you arrived from?” the immigration officer asked in English.

“China,” the traveller replied, and the officer motioned for him to step aside.

“We need to carry out a quick test. We are screening all travellers from China for Coronavirus.”

The traveller complied and walked behind the officer through a corridor. He was offered a seat and he sat down with other passengers who had been flagged. They were in a large room with masked healthcare personnel who handed the waiting passengers paper surgical masks. He made small talk with his fellow travellers and perhaps understood that this was about the illness in Wuhan. China was a big place. Surely, he had not been in contact with anyone who was sick. This was just a precaution.

A man wearing a surgical mask and blue paper coveralls took the traveller’s temperature, looked at the gauge, raised an eyebrow and motioned to a colleague.

“Good day, sir. Can I ask a few questions?” the new man asked.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Where are you arriving from?”

“China.”

“Have you had a fever in the past two weeks?”

“No.”

“A cough?”

“No.”

“Runny nose?

“No.”

“One minute.” The new man walked away and returned with a form that he passed on to the traveller to fill. “Please fill this and wait here.”

The traveller waited, watching as more and more passengers arrived. Then a long while later, the man with two others appeared. “These men will escort you to the hospital,” the man said pointing to his mask. “Please keep that on, we need to run further tests for

the coronavirus.” Confused and worried, he lifted his bag and sandwiched between the two men, walked out of the hospital into a waiting ambulance. Later that evening, the Egyptian Minister of Health announced at a press conference that Africa’s first coronavirus case had been discovered in Cairo, Egypt. The patient was a 33-year-

old Chinese national. The date was Friday, 14 February 2020.