SURGE IN INDIA’S COVID INFECTIONS IS A WARNING TO AFRICA, WHO SAYS

The spike in India’s Covid-19 infections and deaths is a wake-up call for African countries not to let their guard down, the continent’s health bodies have warned.

According to both Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (AfricaCDC) and World Health Organisation, Africa region (WHO-Afro), the continent has to act now, collectively and decisively, to avoid being in a similar situation.

With Africa-bound Covid-19 vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India (SII) delayed for the foreseeable future, slow vaccine rollouts and new variants making inroads, the WHOAfro warned that the risk of a new wave of infections in Africa remains high.

About 20.2 million of the 37.6 million Covid-19 vaccine doses received in Africa have been administered so far, the AfricaCDC said Thursday.

“This figures corresponds to a coverage rate of 1.14 percent at the continental level, with 0.39 percent of the population having received a full vaccine regimen (up by 0.02 percent points from the previous week). To date, AU member states have used 53.8 percent of the vaccine supply available,” reported Dr John Nkengasong, Director of the continent’s public health agency.

The fear of the continent being overrun should a resurgence similar to that of India occur is because Africa’s health system is weak compared with that of India. As it is, many countries continue to grapple with insufficient numbers of healthcare workers, hospital beds and oxygen supplies. Therefore, if the ongoing Covid-19 surge in the South Asian country was to replicate here, Dr Nkengasong, said it would be even more overwhelming.

Meanwhile, the Presidential COVID-19 Task Force says that all travellers from or who have transited through India within the past 14 days will be required to undertake mandatory quarantine at a site selected by the Health Ministry.

The Task Force in an advisory indicates that the quarantine requirement is with immediate effect and is for a period not exceeding 10 days, at the cost of the traveller. Travellers will further be required to undertake an exit COVID19 test from day 5 to 7 at their own cost to determine whether they are released from quarantine or isolation.

The Task Force says this strategy was adopted following the emergence and predominance of the ‘double mutant’ (B.1.617) variant in India. The strain was also recently reported in three African countries (that is Kenya,South Africa and Uganda) which both took similar mitigation measures to Botswana.