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Africa has passed 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases as the continent’s top public health official warns that we are “inevitably approaching a second wave” of infections.
The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the 54-nation continent has seen more than 48,000 deaths from COVID-19. Their infections and deaths represent less than 4% of the world total.
The African continent of 1.3 billion people is being warned against “prevention fatigue” as countries ease pandemic restrictions to ease the suffering of their economies and more people travel.
“We cannot give in. If we give in, all the sacrifices we put into the efforts over the last 10 months will be erased, ”CDC Africa Director John Nkengasong told reporters. He expressed concern that “many countries are not applying public health measures, including masking, which is extremely important.”
While the world is hopeful for the promising COVID-19 vaccines, African health officials also fear that the continent will suffer as richer countries buy supplies.
“Let’s celebrate the good news” first, Nkengasong said. But he cautioned that the Pfizer vaccine requires storage below -70 C (-94 F), and such a requirement “already creates an imbalance in fair distribution or access to those vaccines” as wealthier countries will be better equipped to move quickly. .
A -70 C (-94 F) storage network was installed a few years ago for the devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but that was localized, Nkengasong said.
“If we were to deploy across the continent, it would be extremely difficult to scale,” he said.
The Moderna vaccine requires storage at -20 C (-4 F), which Nkengasong called promising. But the price of any COVID-19 vaccine is another factor in its fair distribution, he said. “So if a vaccine costs $ 40, it becomes almost exclusive to parts of the world” that can afford it.
But it offered an optimistic early look at attitudes in Africa toward any COVID-19 vaccine. Early data from a vaccine perception survey in 11 countries shows that 81% of those surveyed would accept a vaccine, he said. “So this is very, very encouraging news.”
In a separate briefing, World Health Organization Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti acknowledged “very intense competition globally to reserve doses,” but expressed hope that “as time passes, other countries are willing to, if you wish, grant it is not necessary to try to cover the entire population at once. “
Salim Abdool Karim, chairman of South Africa’s COVID-19 advisory committee, said there were no signs that the vaccines that now show promise will not be as effective in Africa as in their clinical trials in other parts of the world.
Nearly 20 countries in Africa are now experiencing a more than 20% increase in cases over the past four weeks, the WHO said. This time around, the rise is not driven by South Africa, but by the North African nations as temperatures drop there.
Several African countries have confirmed virus cases in the six figures. South Africa leads with more than 750,000, while Morocco has more than 300,000, Egypt more than 110,000 and Ethiopia more than 100,000.
Kenya is the most recent concern as it now sees a further increase in cases. At least four doctors died on Saturday alone, prompting a powerful health union in the country to threaten a nationwide strike starting next month.
“You will absolutely certainly see COVID spread to more rural areas” of Kenya and other countries, Nkengasong said, as more people move.
The approaching holidays and intergenerational gatherings carry the risk of super-spread events and new clusters of viruses in areas that have not yet been affected, the WHO said.
The African continent has performed 20 million coronavirus tests since the pandemic began, but the shortage means the actual number of infections is unknown.
Moeti was concerned that in some of Africa’s low-income countries, much of the limited testing capacity has been used on people who want to travel abroad rather than monitor the virus at home.
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Follow AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
