Addressing the global press on Thursday, June 11, the World Health Organization’s Africa regional director, Matshido Moeti, painted a dire picture of Covid19 spreading to the hinterland from capital cities where it arrived with travelers, she said. “Even though these cases in Africa account for less than 3% of the global total, it’s clear that the pandemic is accelerating,” reported CGTN Africa. Ms. Moeti said WHO believes (the unlikely reality) that reported contamination rates are accurate and few cases are missed.
EIR has previously noted the conflict between pandemic lock-downs and the daily fight many in Africa have for food. The larger reality that a large amount of Africa’s goods for daily consumption are imported, thus additionally making port cities and transportation routes (with much of the food transport still confined to trucks) vectors for virus transmission to interior regions. In Kenya (which has a strong border protection regime of testing), huge backlogs of trucks line the highways at border crossings, as trucks are stalled when a driver tests positive. The rate of new cases in Kenya continues to increase, now at more than 150/day. Another argument for a strong continental rail transportation network.
Moeti told the press that ten countries are driving Africa’s epidemic, accounting for 75% of the some 207,600 cases on the continent, with 5,000 deaths reported so far. She highlighted the hot-zone of South Africa (actually #2 in reported cases, behind Egypt), where high numbers of daily cases and deaths are being reported in the two port provinces of Western Cape and Eastern Cape, adding that, “the trend seems to be similar to what was happening in Europe and in the U.S.”
