ADDIS ABABA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Director of Center for Disease Prevention and Control of the African Union (Africa CDC) said that there was still a “window of opportunity” to overcome the pandemic in Africa, which is approaching a million cases, but where most countries register less than 5,000.
“We still have a window of opportunity to, as a continent, overcome the pandemic because 36 of the 55 member states (of the African Union) still register less than 5,000 cases of covid-19,” said John Nkengasong.
He said there are good chance of defeating this pandemic, which includes wearing a mask and increasing the testing and monitoring of cases.
The official was speaking to journalists from Addis Ababa at the usual weekly press conference on the evolution of the pandemic in Africa.
According to the most recent data, presented at the press conference, the continent records a total of 992,762 cases of covid-19, resulting in more than 21,100 deaths.
The vast majority of registered cases are concentrated in only five countries: South Africa (53%), Egypt (10%), Nigeria (4.5%), Ghana (4%) and Algeria (3.3%).
This week, 99,500 new cases were reported, an increase of 11% over the previous week, and 2,700 new deaths from covid-19.
The increase in new cases is less than in recent weeks, but Nkengasong says that while it is tempting to see a decrease, the numbers must be observed over several weeks to determine the real trend of infections on a continent of 1.3 billion people.
Ten countries on the continent have mortality rates above the world average of 3.8%: Chad (8%), Sudan (6.5%), Liberia (6.4%), Niger (6%), Egypt (5.2%), Burkina Faso (4.7%), Angola (4.4%) and Algeria (3.8%).
The Sahrawi Democratic Republic has a mortality rate of 20%, but the Africa CDC official stressed that the country has a very low number of cases and a very recent outbreak.
Of the total infected, 56% of the patients recovered.
John Nkengasong also pointed out that the continent has already carried out 8.8 million tests, which represents 90% of the testing target set in April.
More than 80% of the tests were carried out in 10 countries: South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Mauritius.
The Africa CDC official also said that the organisation is updating the strategy to combat the pandemic taking into account the gradual end of confinements and the opening of borders and schools, announcing the launch of a campaign to “save lives, businesses and schools “.
“The campaign has three objectives: to protect borders and travelers, to save people’s businesses and livelihoods and to protect schools,” said John Nkengasong, stressing the contribution of the private sector in this process.
He added in this context, that Africa CDC is working with countries to increase tests at the borders and to harmonise the criteria for their performance.
“The requirements are not uniform in the continent, there are countries that require tests, there are countries that do not and the validity period of the tests is not well defined”, he exemplified.
The official also pointed out the need to intensify surveillance and testing in schools, stating that guidelines are being prepared for the opening of educational establishments. — NNN-AGENCIES
