Africa regrets 135,000 deaths from Covid, less than in other regions of the world. But the third wave is strengthening and accelerating on the continent, warns the World Health Organization (WHO).
The number of deaths in Africa increased by 15% last week in Africa. Five countries are concentrating three quarters of the new cases, South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda and Namibia, but in the Democratic Republic of Congo we exceeded the peak in January last year. The continent is in the middle of the third wave of epidemics, worries WHO’s regional director, Matshidiso Moeti.
“After four weeks of successive increases in the number of cases intensifying and accelerating the third wave, cases are increasing by 20% every week in 22 African countries.”
The varieties are multiplied on African soil. The Indian Delta variant has appeared in 14 countries on the continent, the variants Alpha and Beta affect 25 countries. Despite the progress made in South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, the Central African Republic and Madagascar, vaccination is stagnating on the continent, regrets Matshidiso Moeti. And not just for lack of doses. “Unfortunately, 23 countries have used only half of the doses they received, including four of the countries where cases have been reopened.”
The WHO calls for rapid action to vaccinate, screen for the virus and interrupt the chain of contamination. To avoid the abundance of health structures that India has experienced, Africa should massively test its population to isolate Covid cases, estimates the WHO, which has provided 90 million rapid antigen tests to 39 African states.
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