While focusing on the epidemic in Europe and the United States, don’t forget Africa.
According to statistics, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Africa has exceeded 2,400, with Libya, Mali and Guinea-Bissau The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported one after another, and the epidemic has spread to many countries on the African continent. They are:
South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana, Mauritius, Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Rwanda , Kenya, Mayotte, Madagascar, Togo, Reunion Island, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Mozambique, Benin, Swaziland, Gabon, Eritrea, Congo (Brazzaville), Serbia Guinea, Namibia, Guinea, Angola, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Chad, Zambia, Gambia, Central African Republic, Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Liberia, Mauritania, Libya, Somalia.
Four ministers of an African country were diagnosed with the disease on the same day. The trend of the epidemic in Africa Big breakout?
Looking at the absolute numbers alone, the epidemic in Africa does not seem to be particularly serious. Against the background that the cumulative number of confirmed cases in many European, American and Asian countries has exceeded 10,000, and the cumulative death toll has been in the hundreds. This seems to be nothing more than “ringworm scabies”.
In fact, long before the COVID-19 epidemic spread overseas, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), who is Ethiopian, had repeatedly warned to “pay attention to the situation in Africa.”
When reporting the epidemic to the African Union on February 22, he said, “The most worrying are countries with weak health systems, especially in Africa.”
He pointed out that the health systems of African countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, are weak, the number of health workers is insufficient, and their quality is worrying. Test kits, personal protective equipment and first aid are necessary for epidemic prevention. Equipment is in short supply.
Some knowledgeable people pointed out that there are as many as 34 countries in Africa included in the list of “least developed countries”. Many governments are strapped for cash and have insufficient public spending, making it difficult to form a dense health and epidemic prevention network.
Weak social mobilization capacity is another characteristic of many African countries. Some African countries are mired in coups and civil wars, and it is difficult to persuade all the people to join the fight against the epidemic.
From the experience and lessons of various countries since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, we know that this situation is the easiest for the epidemic to exploit.
Looking at the hardware conditions, the overall public health situation in Africa is lagging behind. Many people still do not have access to sufficient clean water. Many places are seriously polluted, with mosquitoes and flies flying everywhere. Smelly water flows across the river, filled with “local” garbage and foreign garbage dumped by developed countries.
Many people lack cultural knowledge and rarely receive popular science education, resulting in poor personal hygiene habits, weak public health awareness, and poor self-protection capabilities. Africans are passionate and unrestrained, exchange art, religion, etiquette, and have many gathering places… all of which are opportunities for the new coronavirus to take advantage of.
Not only that, due to backward economic and social development, many African countries have common problems of lack of administrative governance capabilities and backward grassroots community construction. Moreover, many countries are young countries and have poor relations with their neighbors. There are frequent ethnic interactions and exchanges between countries, and the population growth rate is high.
This makes the spread of the epidemic impossible to ignore.
Many countries in Africa have entered a state of emergency
In the past few days, the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic has spread in Africa, and many countries have declared a state of emergency. , and take emergency measures to respond to the new coronavirus epidemic. Mauritius is the first country in Africa to implement a nationwide lockdown. Mauritius declared that the country has entered a “state of war” and adopted the most stringent prevention and control measures: a nationwide curfew will be implemented from 20:00 on March 23 to 20:00 on April 2 local time.
South Africa, the country most severely affected by the epidemic, announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown starting from 0:00 on March 26. South Africa declared a “national state of disaster” on March 15.
According to analysts, although the number of confirmed cases in many African countries is rising slowly, the situation is not optimistic.
The global fight against the epidemic must make up for the “shortcomings” in Africa’s epidemic prevention
Many people are worried. Africa has become a blind spot amid the global spread of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Sadly, this is becoming a reality. At present, more and more celebrities from all walks of life in Africa are coming forward, urgently calling on African people to “bravely help themselves” and hoping that all countries will “actively help”.
As many experts have pointed out, “epidemics respect no borders.” In the era of globalization, it is no longer possible to prevent the epidemic by simply relying on “isolation”.
The epidemic may indeed lead many countries to adopt “closing down” measures and decouple from globalization, but epidemic prevention and control itself must rely on international cooperation. Only through concerted cooperation among countries can the global pandemic be brought down as soon as possible.
Considering that “barrels always leak from the shortest board”, make up for this in Africa.�The “shortcomings” in epidemic prevention that are easily overlooked are the actions that should be taken in global epidemic prevention and control.
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, WHO and the international community have provided some much-needed help to Africa: WHO stated in mid-February that it had raised US$675 million in epidemic prevention funds. A large part of it will be used to deal with the impact of the epidemic that Africa may face.
Kenya’s transportation industry has been hit by the epidemic. The Embassy in Kenya once again reminds export companies to beware of trade fraud
According to recent reports from Kenyan media, Kenya’s air, sea and land transportation have all been significantly affected by the epidemic. In terms of air transportation, since the outbreak of the epidemic, Kenyan flights have been suspended on some international routes and international trade activities have been reduced, resulting in Kenya Airways suffering a monthly loss of US$8 million. Since March 25, Kenya has announced the suspension of all international passenger flights, which will cause the Kenyan aviation industry to face unprecedented challenges. In terms of shipping, due to the tight supply chain, the arrival of ships and transshipments at the Port of Mombasa have been affected. This month, 37 ships have been canceled to Kenya, 104 are pending, and the number of containers carried by ships is also less than expected.
In recent years, China has accounted for about 21% of Kenya’s total imports, and Kenya is highly dependent on China’s imports of production raw materials and consumer goods. Affected by supply chain interruptions or delays caused by the epidemic, Kenyan manufacturers and retailers have been affected. It is estimated that the total value of Kenyan products that need to be sourced from third countries or produced locally reaches US$3.66 billion. The cost of living and production in Kenya may rise, putting greater pressure on the economy.
Recently, the Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy in Kenya has received multiple letters from domestic import and export companies, saying that they encountered trade fraud when conducting foreign trade export business with Kenyan and other companies, resulting in goods being stranded at the Port of Mombasa, Kenya, resulting in Companies suffer heavy losses due to high demurrage fees or goods being taken away without payment.
Be careful when shipping to Nigeria during the epidemic!
The Director-General of Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority issued a statement saying: In addition to the international operations at the single airports in Kano, Enugu and Port Harcourt, the international operations at the two airports in Lagos and Abuja will also be suspended in March. All inbound international flights will be closed from 23:00 on the 23rd to 23:00 on April 23, except for emergency flights and important flights. During this period, domestic flights in Nigeria will continue to operate normally at all airports.
Customs: normal work, crowd flow is restricted;
APAPA and TINCAN port operators work normally, business and customers are working from home ;
MSK, PIL, COSCO, Safi Shipping, ZIM and other shipping companies have released their departments to work, while other departments are working from home;
Banks: APAPA’s FCMB, ZENITH, and GT banks have arranged for staff to go to work;
During the epidemic, the efficiency of various departments will be affected. Freight forwarders and cargo owners shipping to Nigeria, please stay safe Pay attention to the dynamics to avoid unnecessary losses! </p
