COVID-19 Pandemic - Africa

This year has been full of peril and drastic change, primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The coronavirus initially surfaced in China late last year but has since spread to almost 200 countries, infecting millions. One continent that has been heavily affected is Africa. The first occurrence of the virus in Africa was documented on February 14th,  2020 in Egypt. Since then, the situation in this continent has only worsened with the continent reporting over 1 million cases as of August 6th. Though there has been a decline in cases over the past couple of days, there is still much to be done in order to better combat the virus and maintain this trend. 

Though all of Africa has been affected in some way, the virus has been especially prevalent in the more populous countries. South Africa has the highest number of recorded cases in Africa and the fifth most in the entire world with over 500,000 confirmed cases and 10,000 casualties. Steps have been taken by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in order to contain the virus. For example, he instituted a 21 day lockdown from the end of March to the beginning of April as well as making COVID-19 testing more available to the people. However, it has not been enough as there has been a surge in cases in the past month leading to the extension of the state of disaster until August 15th. According to WHO(World Health Organization), if containment measures are not prioritized, there is a very high risk for a spread of COVID-19 due to the lack of sufficient medical facilities and equipment. 

Though the majority of cases have been in South Africa, other industrialized countries have been greatly affected. Egypt announced its first case on February 14th, the first of more than 95,000. The most notable mass infection took place on March 6th in a Nile River cruise ship traveling from Aswan to Luxor. According to health authorities, 45 people on board had tested positive for the virus and it was later found out that the virus spread from a Taiwanese-American female tourist on the ship. The ship would go on to be placed in quarantine at a dock in Luxor. Another country that has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic is Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa. Nigeria has the third most cases in the continent with over 46,000 people being diagnosed with the virus. Though there have been efforts to address the virus in the country, many of the methods utilized have been met with limited success, a theme applicable to most African countries. 

Many African countries have been affected by the virus. However, due to the lack of resources and money, the development and accessibility to a potential vaccine has faced many challenges.  Africa faced a similar situation like this before in 1996 when HIV drugs were not made available to the continent for 7 years. In order to avoid a repeat of this, the Africa CDC has launched a consortium aimed at securing clinical trials on the continent as soon as possible. Furthermore, African institutions are attempting to make sure that a vaccine is being distributed equally to all continents in order to avoid a repeat of the HIV epidemic 20 years earlier. 

The presence of COVID 19 continues to have a lasting impact all across the world. Countries in continents such as Africa have experienced a high number of cases and lack the sufficient resources to better address the epidemic. Even though efforts have been made by the government of African countries individually, group collaboration may be able to better combat the virus as well as increase access to the vaccine in development.