Updated 7 minutes ago
- World Health Organization (WHO) noted the novel coronavirus was already spreading from capital cities to 'the hinterlands' of African countries
- The organisation noted it was focusing on prevention rather than treatment because African countries did not have enough capacity to treat COVID-19 patients
- As of April 17, Africa as a whole had recorded over 18,700 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 972 deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that the African continent could become the next epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The organisation observed there was a significant rise in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across Africa in the past week.
The continent, WHO indicated, did not have enough ventilators yet to deal with a pandemic as grave and complicated as the novel coronavirus.
According to the regional director of WHO Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, the virus was already spreading from the capital cities to “the hinterlands” in South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana.
Moeti noted WHO was now focusing on prevention rather than treating the disease because African countries did not have the capacity to treat many COVID-19 patients.
“We want to minimise the proportion of people who get to the point of needing critical care in an ICU, because we know that these types of facilities are not adequate by any means in the majority of African countries,” she said.
Moeti added she was most worried about the issue of ventilators since they were the biggest challenge that most African countries were grappling with.
As of April 17, the continent of Africa as a whole had recorded over 18,700 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 972 deaths in total.
In other news, the World Bank advised African countries to reopen their borderseven as the coronavirus pandemic continued to affect people globally.
It argued there was an urgent need for the transport of medical supplies, food and other necessities.
The lender revealed as at the end of March 2020, 31 some African countries had closed their borders.
A Business and Financial Times report showed cross-border trade on a small scale helped to provide for about 43% of Africa's population.
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