Coronavirus is slowly gaining a foothold in Africa, a continent once perceived as one of the safest regions against the disease.
In less than two months after Egypt became the first country in Africa to confirm a coronavirus case, the outbreak has reached all but two of Africa’s 54 countries. Only Comoros and Lesotho have yet to report confirmed cases.
Nearly a thousand have died of the disease in the continent of over a billion people, including the former president of the Republic of the Congo, Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango, and Somalia’s former prime minister Nur Hassan Hussein, among dozens of health officials.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there were more than 17, 000 confirmed infections with over 3,500 recoveries as of Thursday evening.
Though the tally is still relatively low compared to global figures, it has doused the debate on the continent having some kind of immunity against Covid-19 due to its warm weather.
Governments across Africa are now rushing to reinforce measures to contain the spread of the disease, knowing that their fragile health systems will be swiftly overwhelmed if the disease spreads beyond a small number of cases.
Algeria has the highest number of fatalities – 348 with over 2, 268 infections closely followed by Egypt with 183 deaths and over 2, 500 cases. 128 deaths and 2, 251 infections have been recorded in Morocco.
South Africa still leads the continent with over 2, 500 cases but with only 34 deaths, significantly due to the country’s good health system.
Nigeria has 407 cases as of Thursday evening with 12 deaths.
WHO officials said the statistics likely underestimate the true number of cases in Africa, raising concerns that the contagion may soon overwhelm its under-resourced health services.
Lockdowns and Social Distancing Not Working?
Social distancing, complete lockdown and basic hygiene measures are not just difficult to maintain in many parts of Africa, the measures have laid bare deep cracks of inequality.
While the few rich and affluent can stockpile food, millions living in poverty would rather die of COVID-19 than stay at home on empty stomachs.
Most African nations such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana extended weeks-long total lockdowns but citizens are defying the measures by going about their daily activities especially after palliatives have not been proportionately shared.
Compelling people to stay at home without providing them with aid will only make them undermine safety protocols, experts say.
They said lockdowns will only work through proper community engagement, sensitization and proper sharing of palliatives.
Local Transmission
Deterrence in welcoming foreign visitors proved helpful in pushing back COVID-19.
But local transmission – confirmed cases with no foreign travel history – has started in Africa.
“It is crucial that governments prevent local transmission from evolving into a worst-case scenario of widespread sustained community transmission”, said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa in March. “Such a scenario will present a major challenge to countries with weak health systems.”
More than half of the countries in the African region are now experiencing local transmission.
Slums and informal settlements, which are also part of the physical infrastructures of many African cities, are mostly overcrowded and lack basic hygiene services even before the threat of a global health crisis emerged.
The virus can easily spread through overcrowded cities, remote villages and among vulnerable populations such as refugees, the malnourished or those suffering from HIV and other chronic conditions.
PREMIUM TIMES
