Africa starts opening airspace even as COVID-19 cases climb

JOHANNESBURG: As COVID-19 cases surged in many parts of the world, the island nation of the Seychelles was looking good: 70-plus straight days without a single infection. Then the planes arrived.

Two chartered Air Seychelles flights carrying more than 200 passengers also brought the Coronavirus. A few tested positive. Then, between June 24 and 30, the country's confirmed cases shot from 11 to 81.

Now the Indian Ocean nation has delayed reopening for commercial flights for its lucrative tourism industry until August 1, if all goes well. African nations face a difficult choice as infections are rapidly rising: Welcome the international flights that originally brought COVID-19 to the ill-prepared continent, or further hurt their economies and restrict a lifeline for badly needed humanitarian aid. This is a very important moment, the World Health Organization's Africa chief, Matshidiso Moeti, told reporters on Thursday, a day after Egypt reopened its airports for the first time in more than three months.

Other countries are preparing to follow. That's even as Africa had more than 463,000 confirmed virus cases as of Sunday and South Africa, its most developed economy, already struggles to care for COVID-19 patients.

But Africa's economies are sick, too, its officials say.

The continent faces its first recession in a quarter-century and has lost nearly 55 billion in the travel and tourism sectors in the past three months, the African Union says. Airlines alone have lost about 8 billion and some might not survive. Most of Africa's 54 countries closed their airspace to ward off the pandemic. That bought time to prepare, but it also hurt efforts to deliver life-saving medical supplies such as vaccines against other diseases. Shipments of personal protective gear and Coronavirus testing materials, both in short supply, have been delayed.

Many governments have decided travel needs to resume, the WHO'S Africa chief said. Africa has seen far fewer flights than other regions during the pandemic. Sometimes the entire West and Central African region saw just a single daily departure, according to International Civil Aviation Organization data.