Officials from the World Health Organization said that some African countries may experience peak coronavirus infection in the coming weeks, and urged the region to step up detection efforts.
“We can see that the numbers have already doubled during the last four days,” said Michel Yao, Emergency Operations Program Manager of the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa.
“With what we’ve learned from what happened in China and Europe, if this trend continues, some [African] countries may face a sizeable peak very soon,” he said.
“Without assistance and action now, poorer countries and vulnerable communities could be devastated. Infection numbers in Africa are currently relatively low, but they are growing fast,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
For her part, the WHO’s Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti stressed that there was a pressing need to expand the capacity for conducting coronavirus tests in Africa in order to overcome the virus.
Statistics prepared by Reuters, based on government and WHO data, indicate that the number of people who have been infected with the coronavirus in Africa is relatively low so far, with 11,000 cases and 562 deaths recorded.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
