Africa, poorly equipped and without vaccines, staples with a fatal increase in Covid-19

A new, more communicable strain of the disease, first detected in South Africa, is causing infections in neighboring countries and has been found thousands of miles away in countries like Ghana. The continent-wide mortality rate surpassed the world average for the first time in January. From Senegal to Zambia, daily cases have increased by about twice the previous peak.

“The second wave is here with revenge and our systems are overflowing,” said John Nkengasong, director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new deadliest wave could widen the gap between the richest and poorest nations in the world. Unlike richer countries, African economies cannot afford to repeat last year’s harsh blockades, which pushed the continent into the worst recession since records began, according to the International Monetary Fund.

African nations are also still waiting for a vaccine. Although 50 of the richest countries in the world have administered some 40 million doses, only two in sub-Saharan Africa – the island states of Mauritius and the Seychelles – have begun firing. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus warned last week that the hoarding of vaccines in rich countries was a “catastrophic moral failure.”

“The price of this failure will be paid with life and livelihood in the poorest countries in the world,” he said.

This dynamic is leading many scientists to warn of a new rise in infections during the winter in the southern hemisphere in May and June.

“We are going to get a third wave, even a fourth … There is no light at the end of the tunnel for African countries,” said Tivani Mashamba, a professor of diagnostic research at the University of Pretoria. “This pandemic has just begun.”

Of course, the known number of deaths in Africa is still much lower than in the United States and Europe. Lack of testing capacity, limited access to data, and secret governments have made it difficult to determine the true scale of the virus in much of the continent.

Zambian scientists tested bodies in the main morgue in Lusaka to detect Covid-19 during the country’s first wave of infections between June and September and found that almost 20% were positive. Only a fraction had been tested for the disease before dying. The average age of deaths from Covid-19 was 48, much lower than in developed countries.

The Tanzanian government insists it is free of the virus and has criminalized reports of the pandemic. However, scientists in Ghana recently found the South African coronavirus strain in a Tanzanian traveler.

The increase is putting pressure on underfunded healthcare systems across the continent, with 1.2 billion people. Hospital beds end up in Zambia and Uganda, forcing many people to be treated at home. From Senegal to South Africa, thousands of workers are crowded into shared minibuses despite record new infections. Even in countries like Rwanda, which was praised during the first wave for its effective closure and surveillance policies, the recent increase in cases has been much greater.

“We are seeing a line of patients passing by and we are separating patients,” said Rashida Ferrand, a professor of international health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who also works at Covid-19’s main public treatment center at Parirenyatwa Hospital Harare, Zimbabwe. “It is done in order of arrival and service.”

The 60 seats in the hospital’s Covid-19 isolation room are occupied, as are the hospital’s four intensive care beds, while many nurses are ill.

During the first two weeks of January, approximately 40% of health workers at Harare’s main public hospitals who had symptoms of Covid-19 tested positive, according to doctors running the program. Just this month, the country lost its foreign, transport and provincial ministers to the Covid-19.

Across southern Africa, the recent rise in infections has coincided with the discovery of the South African variant, which researchers say is up to 50% more transmissible than previous versions. During the holidays, thousands of migrant workers traveled home from South Africa, bringing new tension with them on crowded buses to neighboring Zimbabwe, Mozambique and nearby Zambia; all of which recorded record increases in cases over the following weeks.

Zambian researchers and Botswana doctors quickly discovered that patients were getting sick from the variant. Other countries, such as Zimbabwe, do not have the infrastructure to sequence the viruses found in the Covid-19 tests.

Meanwhile, there is an acute shortage of oxygen on a continent where there are fewer fans than in New York City, which has less than 1% of the African population.

In Zimbabwe and Nigeria, a black market for oxygen drums has appeared on social media, forcing relatives of patients to outdo each other for scarce supplies.

UniGas, one of Zimbabwe’s leading providers of medical-grade oxygen, sends more than 100 requests daily from family members looking for oxygen tanks and concentrators to treat sick relatives at home. The company has added additional staff and shifts to disinfect and fill bottles. “We are working 24 hours a day,” said Kuda Katurura, the company’s executive director.

In Nigeria, the air force manufactures an emergency oxygen supply after an increase in cases in Lagos, the continent’s most populous city. The shortage is particularly acute in public hospitals, where doctors say it is forced to ration oxygen and, in some cases, to refuse treatment.

“We only have a small amount of oxygen in the ICU for the most serious cases,” said Folarin Opawoye, a Lagos doctor. “We have to run between floors carrying drums to try to save patients.”

In the Senegalese capital, Dakar, the government is fighting for its citizens to adhere to measures of social distancing, such as a night curfew.

“Those who have the power, the curfew or the curfew, have the means to take care of their families,” said Mamadou Fall, a driver who usually takes visitors to and from the international airport. from the city. “But we have to take into account the poor people who live in working-class neighborhoods.”

Write to Joe Parkinson to [email protected] and Gabriele Steinhauser to [email protected]