Africa has defied expectations as to what concerns the Covid-19 death rate which has stayed relatively low.
Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaking recently about the continent’s coronavirus said the wave of COVID-19 infections that many predicted would cruelly expose Africa’s weak health systems has not materialised on the continent thanks to early lockdown measures, lessons learnt from the Ebola and HIV crises, and strong leadership and coordination on a continental level.
Contrary to what has been done in other continents Africa did not ease lockdowns but has redoubled its efforts in order to avoid a massive spread of the disease.
The main reasons for the low death rate in Africa are due to the quick actions taken by most countries, public support; in a survey conducted in 18 countries in August by PERC, public support for safety measures was high – 85% of respondents said they wore masks in the previous week, the youthful population of the continent; the age of the population in most African countries is also likely to have played a role in containing the spread of Covid-19 as the pandemic has largely been in younger age groups… about 91% of Covid-19 infection in sub-Saharan Africa are among people below 60 years and over 80% are asymptomatic according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and finally the climatic conditions; a study conducted by researchers in the University of Maryland in the US found a correlation between temperature, humidity and latitude, and the spread of Covid-19.
Recent statistics from the WHO points out that, there are now more than 1 318 254 million reported cases of COVID-19 in the WHO African Region and 29 901 people have sadly lost their lives. In the past seven days there were 31 621 new cases and 406 new deaths.
