AFRICA: COVID-19 gaining ground around the continent

By: Ollus Ndomu

The World Health Organization has released latest COVID-19 statistics which shows the pandemic is gaining ground in Africa.

WHO says the continent has seen the Covid-19 death toll jumping beyond 43% in the past week with countries facing shortages of hospital beds and oxygen for critically ill patients.

In a month period, Africa has recorded 1 million new cases with several countries facing shortages of vaccines.

Speaking last Thursday in virtual press briefing, WHO regional director, Matshidiso Moeti disclosed that Africa is recording its highest number of COVID-19 infections since the virus was first detected early in 2020:

“Over the past month, Africa recorded an additional 1 million cases,” Moeti said. “This is the shortest time it has taken so far to add one1 million cases. Comparatively, it took around three months to move from 4 million to 5 million cases. This COVID-19 resurgence is the fastest the continent has seen.”

According to the global health agency, 12 countries around the world’s second largest continent, including
Algeria, Malawi, Senegal and Zimbabwe,
are grappling with a sharp rise of coronavirus.

The death in Africa is surging with medical experts partly blaming it on the delta coronavirus variant.

The delta COVID-19 variant is said to be the most transmittable of all the variants and it has been detected in 21 countries around the continent.