Africa now facing an existential threat, says expert

AFRICA IS facing an “existential threat” as some countries will have more than 10,000 coronavirus cases by the end of April, a health expert has warned.

While cases across Africa were now above 6,000 at what has been called the dawn of the outbreak, the continent was “very, very close” to where Europe was after a 40-day period, said the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr John Nkengasong.

The virus “is an existential threat to our continent”, he said.

Just five of Africa’s 54 nations have not reported cases but Mr Nkengasong said it was just a matter of time until they got the virus.

He said authorities were “aggressively” looking into procuring equipment such as ventilators that most African countries desperately need and local manufacturing and re-purposing were being explored.

“We’ve seen a lot of goodwill expressed to supporting Africa from bilateral and multilateral partners but we still have to see that translate into concrete action”, he said.

The World Health Organisation did not know how many ventilators were available across Africa to help those in distress, regional director Dr Matshidiso Moeti told reporters.

“We are trying to find out this information from country-based colleagues. What we can say without a doubt is there is an enormous gap.”

Some countries have only a few ventilators. The Central African Republic has just three.

A small percentage of people who are infected will need ventilators and about 15 per cent may need intensive care, said WHO official Dr Zabulon Yoti.

The health officials pleaded for global solidarity.