29 to 40 million Africans could be infected with coronavirus in the first year of the pandemic, says the World Health Organization.
Africa may suffer from coronavirus for many years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa may record 190,000 death in the coming 12 months.
Last month the WHO warned that the continent could suffer 10 million infections within six months.
In a study released by the organization this week, it predicts that between 29 million to 44 million people could be infected with the virus in the first year of the pandemic if containment measures fail.
“While Covid-19 likely won’t spread as exponentially in Africa as it has elsewhere in the world, it likely will smoulder in transmission hotspots,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti WHO regional director.
She added that “Covid-19 could become a fixture in our lives for the next several years unless a proactive approach is taken by many governments in the region. We need to test, trace, isolate and treat.”
The research focused on 47 countries 1 billion population in the WHO African region.
Africa has recorded more than 51,000 infected cases, with over 2,012 deaths. The number of cases has increased sharply in the past week.
“Overall … we are looking at community spread in some countries … We are estimating that this will peak in four to six weeks if nothing is done,” Moeti said on Friday.
According to a UN regional director, the lock down imposed by most countries have slowed down the virus spread.
“We have to recognise that African governments are doing a lot,” said director at the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Stephen Karingi. “Projections were that we would be in a war situation by now, but because of the measures taken by governments and communities, transmission rates are lower than we’ve seen elsewhere,” he added.
It seems rather unfortunate that African leaders have been lifting their various lock down.
They do this when effective alternative measure have not been identified.
In Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and many other countries, the figures of COVID-19 patients are on the increase.
What will become of Africa if the results of this research appears in reality?
Kiffasblog
