The coronavirus has finally reached rural Africa, which for many months has been considered a safe haven for infections that hit large cities particularly hard.
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For Pelagia Bvukura, who lives in a rural part of north-central Zimbabwe, COVID-19 had always been an “urban disease”, affecting those in the capital Harare or other remote cities.
“There was no virus for us. We only used to hear that it was in Harare or other cities or when townspeople died and we buried them here,” she said recently, referring to the custom in Zimbabwe where those who move to the city are often buried in their family’s rural home. That is changing now.
A new wave of the virus is finally entering the rural areas of Africa, where most of the continent’s people live. With facilities in rural areas poorly prepared to fight the coronavirus, residents like Bvukura worry that the next graves to be dug may be for their neighbors – or even themselves. Her village of Zvimba, 110 kilometers (68 miles) from Harare, has not yet registered a significant increase in infections, but it is located in a province that is the current center of the virus.
“It’s right outside the door now. It’s scary. We do not know how to protect ourselves. We’ve never dealt with such a problem before,” she said. Like many here, she had no worm and is not yet vaccinated.
Africa has registered over 5.3 million cases and is experiencing the worst of a wave driven by more contagious and deadly variants. The continent noted an increase of 39% in new cases during the week of June 14-20, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
With homesteads far apart, few visitors and rare public gatherings, rural areas seemed so isolated that they drew some people from cities to escape both contagion and financial hardship. “It was a dangerous, false sense of security. Now a tragedy is unfolding,” said Dr. Johannes Marisa, President of the Medical and Dental Staff of the Zimbabwe Association in Harare.
The Delta variant that has destroyed India has been discovered in at least 14 African countries including Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and not just in the cities.
“We are beginning to see an upward trend in rural and marginalized areas,” said Edward Simiyu, Uganda’s country manager for the Mercy Corps charity, in a statement earlier in June.
In Zimbabwe, three of the four districts are under strict lockdown and declared the epicenter of the outbreak of the predominantly rural program Mashonaland West, which registered more than half of the 801 cases reported last weekend. Other hotspots are also largely rural, a first for this country.
“We will see a lot of deaths, especially due to rural areas. COVID-19 is now coming from the countryside,” says Marisa, attributing the nail to “a high degree of complacency”, lack of information and few vaccinations, with urban areas prioritized. The virus can also be spread at funerals when city dwellers return to visit relatives in the countryside.
“I was at a funeral in the countryside recently and people were surprised to see me wearing a mask,” he said.
Rural areas are poorly equipped to cope with the increase, and urban health facilities are under pressure to treat an increasing number of people from rural areas. Zimbabwe’s largest referral hospital, Parirenyatwa in Harare, prioritises beds for COVID-19 patients.
“Parirenyatwa is almost full. These are not people from Harare. Health facilities in the countryside are miserable, so all these people are referred to the city hospital,” says Marisa.
In Mozambique’s remote Tete province, an infection vessel where the delta variant was registered, President Filipe Nyusi expressed concern. “We do not have many beds. … We also do not have many care staff in Tete,” said Nyusi.
As rural health care facilities in places like Uganda are less well staffed than in urban areas, “a repression of COVID-19 infections in these rural areas and vulnerable regions is likely to be devastating, … more people risk slipping into deeper poverty, further exacerbating social inequality, division and conflict, says Simiyu of Mercy Corps.
Rural residents have difficulty being vaccinated due to weak public health systems and vaccine distribution problems. Only 1% of Africa’s 1.3 billion people have been vaccinated, according to the WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
Zvimba Rural Hospital had only a small number of coronavirus vaccines, reserved for other doses, its staff said. But even after the vaccine becomes available, “the ability of health systems to absorb these doses and have them distributed – especially in rural areas – is the next huge problem on the horizon,” said Sean Granville-Ross, Regional Director of Mercy Corps in Africa. , in an interview with The Associated Press (AP).
“There is a risk that vaccines could be destroyed in stock across African capitals if countries are not ready to launch mass vaccination campaigns, including in the most difficult rural areas where health infrastructure is already weak, as well as confidence in public health systems,” Granville-Ross said.
Those in rural areas who are desperate for vaccines, including the elderly, live far from hospitals and clinics. Matrida Tendayi, who is 100 years old, said she was too weak to go to the nearest clinic in Dema, a rural area about 50 kilometers from Harare, even though there was a vaccine.
“I have been waiting and waiting,” she said. “But they will not come.”
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