‘Window to curb virus narrowing’

ABOUT half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa still have a “narrowing” opportunity to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the local population, the regional head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday.

The virus has multiplied across Africa more slowly than in Asia or Europe, but more than 40 nations on the continent as of yesterday had reported a total of 2850 with 73 fatalities, according to Reuters.

“It has been a very dramatic evolution,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Africa head.

Governments across the region needed to invest their efforts in aggressively tracing all those who have been in contact with imported cases, to isolate them and prevent transmission.

Moeti said the effort needed to be accompanied by public education campaigns to ensure people are maintaining physical distances and halting passenger flights.

“We still have a window... (but) it is narrowing every day as data on the geographic spread to more and more countries tell us,” Moeti said.

John Nkengasong, the head of the AU’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said African leaders were preparing to engage with their wealthier counterparts to secure vital supplies like respirators and ventilators in case infection rates worsen.

Nkengasong told the teleconference that countries with advanced industrial bases like South Africa, Egypt and Morocco could be used to produce such equipment if needed. | Reuters