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Africa has escaped the “exponential” increase in coronavirus cases seen elsewhere likely due to low population density and a hot, humid climate, the United Nations health agency said.
Africa recorded 34,706 deaths out of 1,439,657 cases, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally on Friday, far behind the other continents. In the United States alone there are 202,827 deaths out of 6,979,937 cases.
“The transmission of COVID-19 in Africa was marked by relatively fewer infections that have decreased in the last two months,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement in French from its regional office in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville. .
“In the last four weeks, 77,147 new cases were registered against 131,647 in the previous four weeks,” said the statement, received by AFP on Friday.
The WHO said some of the worst affected countries such as Algeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa had seen a steady drop in infections in the past two months.
South Africa is the most affected country on the continent. According to the latest official statistics on Friday, 667,049 cases have been registered in the country, of which 16,283 were fatal.
The WHO said that the “low population density, hot and humid climate, high level and high percentage of youth combined” likely contribute to low infection rates.
“About 91 percent of infections in sub-Saharan Africa affected people under the age of 60 and more than 80 percent of these cases were asymptomatic,” he said.
The decline is a testament to decisive public health measures taken by all governments in the region, WHO Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said Thursday during a virtual meeting.
South Africa, the continent’s most industrialized economy, closed its borders at the beginning of a strict national lockdown on March 27 to limit the spread of the virus.
Restrictions on movement and business have been gradually eased since June, but borders remained sealed to prevent importation of the virus from abroad.
