The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned Africa to wake up in the light of the unfortunate events that have bewildered the continent in the past twenty-four hours.
Meanwhile also in the past 24 hours, the Gambia, Mauritius and Zambia have announced their first cases.
Burkina Faso announced Wednesday that the number of infections there had risen by seven to 27 — and that one of them, a 62-year-old diabetic woman, had died overnight.
The country’s main opposition party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), said in a statement that the victim was its lawmaker Rose-Marie Compaore, the first vice president of the parliament. Burkina Faso had in turn ordered the closure of all schools and barred all public and private gatherings until the end of April.
Air traffic has been particularly hard hit, as many of Africa’s initial cases were detected in people who had returned from affected countries in Europe and the Middle East.
Ghebreyesus said sub-Saharan Africa had recorded 233 infections, but warned the official numbers likely did not reflect the full picture.
Cases in Africa have remained low compared to other continents. Egypt still tops the chart of countries with the most cases in Africa with 210 cases. This is followed by South Africa with 116 and Algeria with 75 confirmed cases.
In the meantime, cases across the world have continued to soar as Europe is now the epicenter for the outbreak. Cases have slowed down in China where the virus originated from as the country records lower index cases.
However, China still tops the chart of countries with the most infected cases and deaths globally with over 80,500 infected people and over 3,000 deaths. This is followed closely with Italy which has so far reported over 35,000 cases and 2, 978 deaths.
Despite the grim, people have been recovering from the virus. Over 85,000 people have been treated, recovered and discharged from the hospital.
In all these, the WHO chief has insisted that the pandemic can still be controlled if governments show more dedication.
Tedros Ghebreyesus also advised the African governments to isolate confirmed mild Covid-19 cases in health facilities, where trained professionals can provide good medical care, and prevent clinical progression and onward transmission.
He further added that, “If that’s not possible, countries can use community facilities to isolate and care for mild Covid-19 cases and refer them for specialized care quickly if needed“
Join our twitter community :