Funeral workers carrying personal protective equipment carry a coffin during the funeral of a COVID-19 victim, amid a rural coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Olifantsvlei Cemetery, southwest of Joburg, South Africa, on 6 January 2021.
Siphiwe Sibeko | Reuters
New and more contagious variants of Covid-19 are spreading across Africa, causing an increase in infections and deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
More than 175,000 new cases and more than 6,200 deaths were reported across the continent in the week to Thursday, the WHO said in an update, while infection rates rose by 50% between December 29 and January 25 compared to the previous four weeks. .
Deaths doubled during the same period to 15,000, concentrated in ten mainly southern and northern African countries, with 22 countries now seeing infection rates increase.
“The variant that was first detected in South Africa has spread far beyond Africa, and what keeps me awake at night now is that it probably spreads in a number of African countries,” said dr. Matshidiso Moeti, regional director for Africa, said a virtual press conference on Thursday.
The WHO has been identified in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya and the French Indian Ocean region of Mayotte, Zambia, the WHO has confirmed, along with 24 countries outside Africa.
Meanwhile, the highly contagious tensions initially detected in the UK have now moved to Nigeria and Gambia.
The Africa CDC has set up sequencing laboratories across the continent and the WHO has called on all countries to send at least 20 samples per month to the sequencing laboratories to help coordinate a targeted response.
“In addition to the new variants, COVID-19 fatigue and the aftermath of the year-end events could drive a perfect storm and drive up Africa’s second wave and overwhelming health facilities,” Moeti said.
“Africa is at a crossroads. We must keep up and double the tactics we know work so well. It is mask wearing, hand washing and safe social distance. There are numerous lives dependent.”
In the past week, infections have dropped slightly in South Africa, the country that has been hit the hardest on a continent, mostly avoiding the exponential spread of the virus that has brought the biggest economies to a standstill at various points in recent years.
As of Friday morning, South Africa had 1 437 798 cases of Covid-19 and 43 105 deaths. The entire continent has reported about 3.5 million cases and 88,985 deaths, according to a BBC compilation of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.