AFRICA – COVID numbers in Africa are on steady rise with the total number of infections at 4,951,177 as reported by Africa CDC. However, the continent is also experiencing a balance between infections and recoveries.
As of yesterday, cumulative recoveries in the continent tallied to 4,469,399 outweighing fatalities by a whooping margin. Africa has recorded a total of 133,174 deaths due to COVID. So far, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia have recorded high mortality rates.
Egypt has a cumulative death toll of 15, 437 out of 266,527 cases while Tunisia has 13,126 fatalities out of 358,182 cases. Morocco has recorded 9,187 mortalities so far.
In Kenya, the ministry of health reported 433 new cases and 18 deaths. A bulk of these cases were from Kisumu County, an area that has raised national concern since the Indian Covid variant was reported there. Currently, health institutions in the county are strained and reportedly lacking covid test equipment.
South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has put his Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize, on special leave, after allegations his department irregularly awarded COVID-19-related contracts to a communications company controlled by his former associates. This comes as south Africa faces threat from the third COVID wave having recorded over 1.7 million cases and 57.183 deaths.
It has been reported that many African countries might not reach their full potential in combating the pandemic due to corrupt deals surrounding funds and relief materials for Corona mitigation.
The southern region is still a virus dense zone in the continent with South Africa’s neighbor Zambia recording over one hundred thousand cases and 1,321 fatalities.
The situation is no different in west Africa where Nigeria is recording a daily increase in covid cases. Yesterday, the country had a cumulative total of 166, 918 reported cases and 2117 deaths. Ghana follows in the region with over 94,000 cases and 787 deaths.
Central Africa, though relatively low on virus burden has not been spared either by the third wave. In the region, DR Congo and Cameroon are most affected. These countries have recorded over 33 thousand and 79 thousand COVID cases respectively with fatalities totaling to about 2,100.
Vaccination is among the few sure methods to contain the pandemic. However, Africa still lags behind in efforts to immunize populations. Who reported that Africa has received vaccines sufficient to cover only 15 of their population.
Given the strenuous conditions around Africa, many organizations and well-wishing countries are teaming up to offer as much help to this continent in terms of vaccine supply, storage and administration.
To date, only 0.63% of the population in Africa has been immunized. This is according to CDC, which also noted that 65.4% of the available supply has been used up.
