The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, has predicted that 83, 000 to 190 000 people could die of the outbreak of coronavirus in Africa.
Moeti also said that the number of COVID-19 cases that would require hospitalization in Africa would overwhelm the available medical capacity in much of Africa.
Moeti stated a new study by WHO Africa revealed that the virus may not spread widely on the continent like it has elsewhere if the measures are put in place to control it.
According to the report, the virus could infect about 29 to 44 million people in Africa in the first year of the outbreak.
“While COVID-19 likely won’t spread as exponentially in Africa as it has elsewhere in the world, it likely will smoulder in transmission hotspots.
“COVID-19 could become a fixture in our lives for the next several years unless a proactive approach is taken by many governments in the region. We need to test, trace, isolate and treat.
“The importance of promoting effective containment measures is ever more crucial, as sustained and widespread transmission of the virus could severely overwhelm our health systems.
“Curbing a large scale outbreak is far costlier than the ongoing preventive measures governments are undertaking to contain the spread of the virus,” Moeti said.
Predicting that the number of cases that would require hospitalisation would overwhelm the available medical capacity in much of Africa, Moeti said: “3.6 million to 5.5 million COVID-19 hospitalisation, of which 82 000 to 167, 000 would be severe cases requiring oxygen, and 52,000 to 107, 000 would be critical cases requiring breathing support.”
Moeti said the research, which is based on prediction modelling, looked at 47 countries in the WHO African region with a total population of 1 billion.
The study recommended that countries across Africa need to expand the capacity particularly of primary hospitals and ensure that basic emergency care is included in primary health systems.
As of May 8, Africa had recorded 54, 434 cases, 2,080 deaths, and 18,857 recoveries.
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