Africa's health officials warned on Saturday that the continent could see a wave of coronavirus infections similar to the record wave that India is currently experiencing. While the continent has seen lower infections and deaths compared to Europe and other regions, as the pandemic enters a second year, the presence of variants and the low rate of vaccinations could change this, warned Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nkengasong was speaking during a joint meeting of African Union ministers of health held online. In the year since the first coronavirus cases were recorded in Africa, 52 out of 54 states have experienced a second wave of infections, with the second being more severe than the first in most cases.
Thirteen countries experienced the third wave of infections. Epidemiologists are concerned that an upward trend in some regions could bring another peak: In the last month, Central Africa has seen a 64-per-cent increase in infections, while southern Africa has seen a 4-per-cent increase and North Africa 0.2 per cent.
Nkengasong drew similarities to India, where the number of deaths per day decreased from a thousand a day in September 2020, to 150 a day in March 2021, only to spike to current records reaching about 3,700deaths a day. "It is strikingly similar to what the continent as a whole, a continent that has almost the same population size as India, recording," said Nkengasong.
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