According to published figures, the two leading countries for SARS CoV-2 pandemic in Africa are South Africa, where infection dwarfs even its leading contender, Egypt. Whether hard-hit or not, every African country is reaching the limits of its healthcare capacities, even on what might be called a good day.
In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has — while not officially reinstating the lockdown — now reversed course and rescinded many “freedoms” (like the opening of liquor stores and cancellation of the curfew), which had begun to be eased at the end of May. In a 40-minute address to the nation, July 19, he called the novel coronavirus “the gravest crisis in the history of our democracy.” Of the 4,000 South Africans who have died of the infection, 25% have died in the last week alone! Peak infection is now expected (depending on location) anywhere between July and September.
“We are not helpless in this time,” Ramaphosa encouraged. In addition to providing mitigating measures such as masks, the nation has mobilized its domestic productive capabilities in response. The auto and steel industries have worked to produce thousands of ventilators, with delivery expected in the next weeks and months. Domestically produced PPEs have been flowing since the early days of the lockdown.
One thing that can’t be manufactured is doctors and nurses, the current shortage of whom he put at 12,000. Medical students have volunteered across the country in record numbers, but there are limits to what they can (especially as hospitals keep getting overrun by the Covid patients). The country has created thousands of “field hospitals” in converted factories or abandoned buildings. The latest plea, for oxygen, from Gauteng (pronounced “Hau"-teng) Province, has been met in the last week by local donors, who have responded by renting and then donating 70 “concentrators,” which make oxygen from room air.
