Second wave of COVID-19: Africa’s fatality rate surpasses global level
The coronavirus case fatality rate in Africa has risen alarmingly to 2.5per cent, higher than the global level of 2.2per cent, the head of the continent’s disease control body disclosed this on Thursday.
According to John Nkengasong, Head of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the early stage of the pandemic, Africa’s rate had been below the global average.
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“The case fatality rate is beginning to be very worrying and concerning for all of us,” he said, without giving a reason for the increase.
The number of African nations with a rate of deaths-per-cases higher than the global average is growing, he added.
There are 21 countries on the continent with a rate above 3per cent, including Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan.
The initially lower case fatality level in Africa may have been due to lower testing rates and a youthful population, experts said last year.
Despite Nkengasong’s concern, the World Health Organisation’s Africa head Matshidiso Moeti told an online news conference that Africa’s case fatality rate was not dramatically worse than other regions.
She said higher rates were probably due to the challenges African countries most severely affected by the second wave, notably South Africa where a more infectious variant has been detected were facing in providing care for infected people.
Over the past week, cases around the continent decreased by nearly 7per cent compared to the previous week while deaths increased 10per cent, according to Africa CDC data.
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Second wave of COVID-19
With a population of more than 1.3 billion, Africa has recorded 81,000 COVID-19 deaths, representing 4 per cent of fatalities globally from the coronavirus, Nkengasong told reporters.
Africa has recorded 3.3 million infections in total.
The continent reported 207,000 new cases in the past week, with South Africa alone reporting 100,000 of those, Nkengasong said.
Source: www.spotonnews.net