Although the epidemic was not caused by Africa, Africa may suffer the most severe consequences. Only when Africa wins the fight against the epidemic can the global epidemic be completely ended. ——United Nations Secretary-General Guterres
Bruce Bassett, data scientist at the University of Cape Town, South Africa Zeng said: What I worry about is that we have a ticking time bomb.
This bomb has exploded.
According to data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on July 25, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa has exceeded 810,000 (of which more than 10,000 are medical staff), and the cumulative number of deaths There have been more than 17,000 cases, and a total of more than 460,000 cases have been cured. The rapidly growing number of confirmed cases in Africa is worrying, and the WHO even expressed “shock” about it.
Among them, the most severe epidemic is in South Africa, with more than 430,000 confirmed cases, accounting for half of the confirmed cases in Africa and ranking fifth in the world.
Except for the United States, the top five confirmed cases in the world are the BRIC countries other than China. (Source: Johns Hopkins University, USA)
In this regard, Michael Ryan, head of WHO’s emergency project, warned: The rise in cases in South Africa may be an outbreak across the entire African continent. harbinger of.
Looking back at the early days of the global epidemic, the situation in Africa was not too bad. On February 14, the first confirmed case appeared in Africa. Sixteen days later, the number of confirmed cases reached 100. It took another 10 days for the number of confirmed cases to reach 1,000.
WHO explained that this may be related to the average age of Africa. Africa is the youngest continent in a demographic sense, with people under the age of 25 accounting for the total population. More than 60%.
Of course, it is also related to the active prevention and control of African countries at the beginning. In the early stages of the epidemic, African countries took decisive measures, closing borders, canceling flights, banning gatherings, closing schools, etc., to minimize the spread of the epidemic.
But Africa still has not escaped this disaster. As African WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in March, Africa must be prepared to face the worst-case scenario.
On April 17, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa reported that more than 122 million people will be infected, and up to 1.2 billion; even under the most optimistic scenario, Africa will be infected this year There will also be 300,000 deaths from the disease, which may reach 3.3 million in the worst case scenario, and may push 5 million to 29 million people into extreme poverty.
Currently, Africa has reported more than 810,000 confirmed cases. In fact, this data is likely to be seriously underestimated. As of July 12, in South Africa, the most developed country in Africa, only 36 people per 1,000 people had been tested; in Nigeria, this number was only 0.9. In the United States and the United Kingdom, 122 and 106 people per 1,000 people have been tested respectively.
South Africa, citizens are being tested (Source: Xinhuanet)
Even, some countries in Africa Updates of confirmed data have been stopped. For example, Tanzania stopped publishing COVID-19 infection data at the end of April; in early June, President Magufuli announced that there was no longer a COVID-19 virus. Behind this extreme behavior was his despair and helplessness over the epidemic.
Once the epidemic spreads rapidly in Africa, the consequences will be disastrous. We all know that the most basic measures for epidemic prevention and control are to wash hands frequently, wear masks and maintain social distance. These three most daily things have become a luxury in African slums.
For example, washing hands frequently is not a matter of habit, but a matter of whether there is a water source. According to statistics, currently about 258 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have no running water to wash their hands, and even drinking water sources are seriously insufficient. For example, Senegal, which has a relatively good economy in West Africa, has maintained a high annual GDP growth rate of 6% for more than five consecutive years, but 52% of rural households still have neither soap nor water.
Africa’s medical resources are extremely scarce, with a shortage of medical staff and ventilators, and intensive care beds are even more scarce resources.
When the first death on the African continent occurred in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwean authorities admitted frankly that they did not have a ventilator to save the patient. Sub-Saharan Africa has the fewest doctors per capita. For example, in Zambia, there is statistically only one doctor per 10,000 people. According to the WHO, in most African countries there are only about 5 intensive care beds per million people, while in Europe this number is 4,000.
In addition to COVID-19, many people in Africa are also suffering from Ebola, HIV, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. On June 1, the Ministry of Health of the West African country of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced that a new round of Ebola outbreak had been confirmed in the country.
What is even worse is that as the epidemic spread rapidly, some African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Rwanda began to gradually lift the lockdown from April to May.
LuPeople complying with quarantine measures on the streets of Wanda (Source: The Paper)
In short, responding to the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic is a common challenge facing all mankind, and public health security is the global response. Common issues we are committed to solving. No country can cope with the various challenges facing mankind alone, and no country can retreat to an island of self-isolation.
As United Nations Secretary-General Guterres said, “Although the epidemic was not caused by Africa, Africa may suffer the most serious consequences. Only Africa has won the fight against the epidemic. , can we completely end the global epidemic.” </p
