COVID-19: Nearly a million infected in Africa
Meanwhile, over 670, 000 have recovered from the virus in
the continent.
The latest statistics indicate no sign of the disease
slowing down in the continent of over a billion people.
The virus has spread to all 54 countries in Africa,
stretching already fragile healthcare systems and crippling economies.
South Africa, which accounts for more than half of the
continent’s registered cases, is now the fifth worst-hit globally.
Egypt is in second place over 95,000 confirmed infections
while Nigeria is third with more than 45, 000 cases.
They are closely followed by Ghana, Algeria, Morocco and
Kenya with 39,642, 33,626, 29,644 and 24,411 infections respectively.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised an
alarm on the “acceleration” of the disease in Africa, which until recently had
remained relatively unscathed by the pandemic compared with the rest of the
world – even though health experts believe official data almost certainly
under-reports both infections and deaths, particularly in countries with
limited testing capacity.
Under Testing
Despite the uptick of community transmission in Africa, the continent has lagged in testing people who showed symptoms of the disease.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has tested a little
over 300, 000 of its over 200 million population and found more than 45,000
infections leading to 930 deaths.
On April 28, the Nigerian government announced its target of
testing at least two million people within the next three months.
The ambitious 90 days’ target elapsed about a week ago, but
Nigeria failed to cover even 30 per cent of the two million.
In South Africa, which has a population of 58 million
people, some three million people have been tested so far, the highest for an
African nation.
Egypt has tested about 135,000 of its over 100 million
population while Ghana has screened more than 405,000 of its 31 million people,
the highest for a West African nation.
Morocco has tested more than a million out of its over 36 million people.
Cameroon, central Africa’s worst-affected country with over
17,000 cases, has tested less than one per cent of its population of 25
million.
Health Workers’ Ordeal
As of July 23, more than 10,000 health workers in about 40 countries across Africa have been infected, according to the WHO, a sign of the challenges medical staff on the frontlines of the outbreak face.
“The growth we are seeing in COVID-19 cases in Africa is
placing an ever-greater strain on health services across the continent,” said
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
“This has very real consequences for the individuals who
work in them, and there is no more sobering example of this than the rising
number of health worker infections.”
So far, about 10 per cent of all cases globally are among
health workers, though there is a wide range between individual countries.
In Africa, information on health worker infections are still
limited, but preliminary data finds that they make up more than 5 per cent of
cases in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and in four of these, health
workers make up more than 10 per cent of all infections.
Inadequate access to personal protective equipment or weak
infection prevention and control measures raise the risk of health worker
infection.
Surging global demand for protective equipment as well as
global restrictions on travel has triggered supply shortages. Health workers
can also be exposed to patients who do not show signs of the disease and are in
the health facilities for a range of other services.
Risks may also arise when health personnel are repurposed
for COVID-19 response without adequate briefing, or because of heavy workloads
which result in fatigue and burnout.
In many African countries, infection prevention and control measures aimed at preventing infections in health facilities are still not fully implemented.
Post a Comment