Doctors and nurses go on strike as virus spreads in Africa

Zimbabwe’s hospital doctors and nurses have gone on strike over a lack of protective gear as coronavirus spreads in a country whose health system has almost collapsed.

It is the latest blow to a system where some patients’ families are asked to provide basics such as gloves and clean water.

Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association president Tawanda Zvakada said hundreds of doctors will return to work when the government provides suitable protection: “Right now we are exposed and nooone seems to care.”

Hundreds of nurses at public hospitals joined the strike, said Enock Dongo, president of the Zimbabwe Nurses’ Association. Zimbabwe has reported three cases of Covid-19 and recorded its first death this week.

Neighbouring South Africa’s cases jumped again to 709, its health minister said, as the country with the most cases in Africa prepares to go into lockdown tomorrow.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize on state television pointed out “intense local spread” in Free State province among attendees of a church gathering where five cases were first reported. All five people had recently travelled abroad. Now almost 30 cases have been recorded. Police minister Bheki Cele said two people with coronavirus have been charged with attempted murder because they did not obey orders to self-isolate.

Cases across Africa are well above 2,400. With Mali, Libya and Guinea-bissau announcing their first, 46 of the continent’s 54 countries have the virus.

Some African leaders have scolded citizens for not adhering to prevention measures.

“Countrymen and women, I have gone round the city and I have seen for myself that many among us are not taking this Covid-19 seriously,” Zambian president Edgar Lungu said in Lusaka.

“I have seen multitudes patronising bars or freely hugging and shaking hands at funerals, contrary to health advice.” The country has 12 cases.

African countries that have not recorded cases are Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Burundi, Malawi, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho and Sao Tome and Principe, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Some have the most fragile health systems on the continent.

Congo became the latest to close its borders while reporting its third death. The sprawling nation has one of Africa’s weakest health systems and has been battling another global health emergency, a deadly Ebola virus outbreak in the east.

While that outbreak now appears to be within days of being declared over, Congo also faces a large measles outbreak.

As more countries across Africa impose restrictions on gatherings and travel, many informal workers are suffering. Ethiopia’s government, in a proposal to the G20 major industrialised nations, has said Africa needs a $150 billion (£127bn) emergency financing package because “Covid-19 poses an existential threat to the economies of African countries”.

South Africa already has an unemployment rate of 29 per cent and the lockdown will hit workers hard, but authorities fear what will happen if the virus sweeps through crowded low-income communities and public transport.

Teeming prisons are another worry across Africa. Ethiopia’s state broadcaster EBC cited the attorney general as saying more than 4,000 prisoners will be released to help stop the spread.

Those include people behind bars for minor offences and those with children. distributed to hospitals across the country.

THAILAND

Prime minister Prayuth Chano-cha says he will take sole charge of the country’s battle against Covid-19, warning the outbreak may get much worse. His government issued a 16-point order for the national state of emergency that forbids most foreigners from entering the country and bans rallies and other gatherings in crowded places.

SRI LANKA

Police warned of strict legal action against the people who violate a countrywide curfew. Officers said those who violate the curfew will be immediately arrested, even without a warrant, and legal action will be taken against them.

SOUTH KOREA

The government said it plans to provide coronavirus testing materials to the United States in response to President Donald Trump’s request for help. Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the country is willing to send chemical reagents used to extract genetic material during Covid-19 tests, but at a level that does not affect its own testing capacity.

MALAYSIA

Malaysia has announced it will extend its national lockdown by another two weeks until 14 April.

This will lead to a shutdown of a month for Malaysia, which reported another 172 new coronavirus cases yesterday to bring its total to 1,796, the highest in south-east Asia.

Prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin said total cases had surged from just 673 a week ago when the lockdown began, while total deaths had increased to 17.

He said the uptrend would continue for some time before new cases began to decline, requiring the government to extend the Movement Control Order that is due to expire next Tuesday.

Mr Muhyiddin urged Malaysians to “stay calm and don’t panic”, as he assured them there would be an adequate food supply.