One public health official credits relative success in combating the virus in Africa to ‘drastic action’ taken by nations at ‘great cost to their economies’
While much of the world has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, multiple nations in Africa have managed to keep the virus at bay.
“In Uganda, it was predicted that by September, there would be 600,000 cases of COVID-19 and 30,000 deaths,” Okuonzi said. “
But the reality is starkly different.”
According to Johns Hopkins University, Uganda has recorded about 7,300 positive COVID-19 tests and about 70 deaths.
Dr.
Matshidiso Moeti, Africa’s regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO), attributes the relative success in combating the virus to early diligence of several African nations.
“Governments took early, quite drastic action through the lockdowns at great cost to their economies,” Moeti stated. “This has bought us some time.”
READ MORE: As US struggles, Africa’s COVID-19 response is praised
Concern over the fragile health systems of numerous nations on the continent was high when the pandemic started. However, as of Sept. 20,
the entire African continent has recorded more than 1.4 million cases and about 35,000 deaths connected to COVID-19 as of Sunday morning, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly half of those positive tests — almost 670,000 — were diagnosed in South Africa. The population of the continent is 1.2 billion.
As a comparison, the United States, which has an estimated population of 330 million, has reported over 7 million coronavirus cases and over 204,000 deaths, with 4.5 million recoveries, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of Sunday morning.
