WHO warns pandemic is 'accelerating' in Africa. CoronaVirus will likely kill at least 300,000 Africans

WHO warns pandemic is 'accelerating' in Africa. CoronaVirus will likely kill at least 300,000 Africans

Africa's coronavirus 'hotspots' in South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon Africa will have a "steady increase" in COVID-19 cases until a vaccine is developed and strong public health measures are needed in current "outh Africa, Algeria and Cameroon, the World Health Organization  has said.





until such time as we have access to an effective vaccine, I'm afraid we'll probably have to live with a steady increase in the region, with some hotspots having to be managed in a number of countries, as is happening now in South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon for example, which require very strong public health measures, social distancing measures to take place," Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's Africa regional director, told a Geneva briefing.





WHO warns pandemic is 'accelerating' in Africa. CoronaVirus will likely kill at least 300,000 Africans and risks pushing 29 million into extreme poverty, the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) said on Friday, calling for a $100 billion safety net for the continent.

Africa's 54 countries have so far reported fewer than 20,000 confirmed cases of the disease, just a fraction of the more than two million cases reported globally. But the World Health Organization warned on Thursday that Africa could see as many as 10 million cases in three to six months.





"To protect and build towards our shared prosperity at least $100 billion is needed to immediately resource a health and social safety net response," the UNECA report stated.

UNECA is also backing a call by African finance ministers for an additional $100 billion in stimulus, which would include a halt to all external debt service.





The agency modelled four scenarios based on the level of preventive measures introduced by African governments.

In the total absence of such interventions, the study calculated over 1.2 billion Africans would be infected and 3.3 million would die this year. Africa has a total population of around 1.3 billion.






Most of Africa, however, has already mandated social distancing measures, ranging from curfews and travel guidelines in some countries to full lockdowns in others.