The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will dispatch a medical team to Cameroon to assess the country's COVID-19 preventive measures ahead of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) scheduled for April.

CAF made the announcement on Wednesday, saying it would not stop any competitions because of the continent's low cases of the virus.

"A delegation from the CAF Medical Committee is scheduled to visit Cameroon from 14-15 March 2020. The purpose of this mission is to assess all the preventive measures taken by the Local Organizing Committee," a statement from CAF read.

CAF said it had noted restrictive measures taken by some member nations and was in contact with the countries to find solutions, including possible closed-door matches.

The announcement comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom made the proclamation in a press briefing on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

"We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled at the same time. WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases," Tedros said.

In Africa and beyond, the COVID-19 outbreak has already interrupted some sporting events and forced some restrictive measures on some countries.

The 2020 Kenya Open Golf that was scheduled to be held in Nairobi this month was cancelled in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Italy earlier this week suspended all sporting events indefinitely due to the continuing spread of the virus.

Spain and France ordered all top soccer leagues to be played in empty stadiums to contain the spread of COVID-19.

In his briefing on Wednesday, Tedros warned that WHO was expecting an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the coming weeks, but noted that concerted efforts would help contain the spread.

"If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace, and mobilize their people in the response, those with a handful of #COVID19 cases can prevent those cases becoming clusters, and those clusters becoming community transmission," Tedros said.

Source(s): Confederation of African Football