A worker at a place of lunch holds a sign of a demonstration opposed to the restrictions of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Cape Town, South Africa, on 22 July 2020.
Mike Hutchings / Reuters
COVID-19 is accelerating in Africa at an alarming rate.
South Africa had one of the strictest blocking measures against coronaviruses with alcohol bans and uncompromising curfews. Now, as COVID-19 cases increase, the government has to return to a strict blockade, just as other African countries are beginning to see an increase in cases.
World Health Organization head of emergency, Michael Ryan, has expressed fears about the sub-Saharan region and warned that the South African outbreak could mean an increase in cases across the continent.
Related: South Africa begins coronavirus vaccine trial
Thousands of South African owners of places to eat and bars placed tables and chairs on the open-air streets of their facilities on Wednesday to protest nationally against closure restrictions that prevent them from promoting alcohol or trading after nine o’clock at night. The country’s hotel sector is one of the most affected by government restrictions imposed at the end of March to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Presenter Marco Werman spoke with Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about what would possibly have happened and how African leaders can now interfere with preventive measures to curb the spread of the virus across the continent.
Related: Lawmakers Rush to Sink on African Continent
Dr. John Nkengasong: South Africa is, of course, a very worrying scenario for the continent. As we speak today, the African continent, the 55 Member States, has reported cases of COVID-19 using around 846,000 [infections], and more than a portion of cases come from South Africa. South Africa did everything it took to get started, it only had about 700 instances. Lock, save, expand tests, and locate contacts. I think we know that it is a virus that is transmitted very quickly and, once it is installed in very vulnerable populations, it can spread rapidly.
The key question here is: how to strike a balance between saving lives and saving the economy and not saving lives or savings? I don’t think that formula can hold. We can’t be blocked forever. We want to pass out on the ground, fight battles and intensify competitive and ambitious public fitness measures. Effective public aptitude measures in the United States, Europe and elsewhere and implemented in Africa will not work. I think it’s one. Secondly, we will have to be ambitious in what we want to do. Array.. Many more than 40 African countries still have fewer than 5,000 cases of COVID-19 infection. This is an opportunity where we can deploy a large infantry, that is, touch markers. I want a country like Nigeria to set up about 1 million touch trackers, young people who can control their systems to reduce verification times. Arrangement… [These are] the equipment we have in our hands right now. Otherwise, I don’t know how we’re going through to fight this virus.
When you have an epidemic of this nature, of any kind, for that matter, you see all kinds of behaviors. And I think there are other people who are going to try to exploit this situation. We have noticed this with HIV/AIDS and have noticed it in the great Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Therefore, COVID-19 would be no exception. I believe that in Africa CDC and the African Union Commission are very transparent that this is a serious risk to the continent. People who have tried to see this as an opportunity to make it effective actually make a fatal mistake. And this deserves not to be accepted, tolerated and tolerated at all. I think he deserves to be condemned with the most powerful terms imaginable.
Fair with you, we’re not done with the first wave yet. It’s a position to be very frank with ourselves. I think we have to depend on the equipment we have in our toolbox. What is very important is that only human resources will be able to combat this. It is about making an investment in human capital to combat this infection in a coordinated way at all levels. I fully sense the challenge, but it is a challenge that we will have to face, take it into our hands, look at it and say, “This is our continent. This is our future.” And we have to win this fight to survive.
This interview has been reviewed and condensed for clarity. Reuters contributed to the report.
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