Concern over ‘silent epidemic’ in Africa as coronavirus infections pass 500,000

Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases passed half a million as South Africa recorded another day of more than 10,000 confirmed cases.

The country makes up 43 per cent of Africa’s cases but the true number of infections among Africa’s 1.3 billion people is unknown owing to a serious shortage of testing materials. World Health Organisation special envoy Samba Sow spoke in May of a possible “silent epidemic” if testing was not prioritised.

Covid-19 has already killed more people in Africa – 11,955 – than Ebola did in its deadliest outbreak from 2014 to 2016 in West Africa, the WHO said yesterday.

“With more than a third of countries in Africa doubling their cases over the past month, the threat of Covid-19 overwhelming fragile health systems on the continent is escalating,” said the WHO’s Africa chief, Matshidiso Moeti.

On Tuesday, the African Development Bank said that nearly 50 million Africans could be driven into extreme poverty in the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Between 24.6 and 30 million jobs will be lost this year because of the virus crisis, with Nigeria – the continent’s most populous country – suffering the greatest rise in poverty, AfDB said in its African Economic Outlook.

In the US, the number of confirmed cases passed three million, representing more than a quarter of all cases globally, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Globally, Covid-19 cases have passed 12 million, with about 6.5 million recoveries, while the death toll last night was approaching 550,000.

The UAE detected 445 new cases of coronavirus yesterday, taking the country’s total infections to 53,045.

Authorities said 568 people had recovered from the virus while one patient died. This brought the tallies to 42,282 recoveries and 327 deaths since late January.

The country is continuing a mass testing programme with another 51,000 PCR tests completed in the 24-hour period to yesterday.

Officials said the aim is to carry out another two million tests over the next two months. The target was set after case numbers began to rise after dipping to about 350 new infections a day.

But there are promising signs, including Dubai this week closing its largest field hospital after discharging its last coronavirus patient.