South Africa is the “precursor” for the spread of COVID-19 in Africa, the World Health Organization warned on July 20. “I am very concerned right now that we are beginning to see an acceleration of the disease in Africa,” WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan told a virtual news conference. ”South Africa may, unfortunately, be a precursor, it may be a warning for what will happen in the rest of Africa,” he said, responding to a question about the fact that South Africa, “one of the richest countries in Africa,” had imposed lockdown, mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, and yet “there are now more than 500 new cases in South Africa every hour or more than 12,000 every day… what else can South Africa do right now and what is South Africa missing?”
Ryan pointed out that South Africa was among the first African nations to be hit with coronavirus, and is in a more advanced stage than most other African states. And further more, “Many of those countries exist in the midst of fragility and conflict. Many of them need external health and support but what they need is much more support for community-based interventions and much more support for improving clinical pathways so people who are sick get adequate care.” Ryan warned, “This isn’t just a wake-up call for South Africa. We need to take what is happening in Africa very, very seriously.”
Until recently Africa had been less scathed by the pandemic compared with rising numbers in the rest of the world. Not so for South Africa, which has incurred between 10,000 and 15,000 new cases a day for the past 10 days. It now has 420,000 infections, fifth highest of any nation, and 6,343 confirmed deaths.
