Africa, poorly equipped and without vaccines, is battling a deadly Covid-19 surge

A new, more communicable strain of the disease, first detected in South Africa, is causing infections in neighboring countries and has been found thousands of miles away in countries such as Ghana. The continental mortality rate exceeded the global average for the first time in January. From Senegal to Zambia, daily cases amounted to about twice the previous peak.

“The second wave is here with revenge and our systems are overwhelmed,” said John Nkengasong, director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new deadly wave could widen the gap between the richest and poorest nations in the world. Unlike richer countries, African economies cannot afford to repeat last year’s blockades, which has pushed the continent into the worst recession since recordings began, according to the International Monetary Fund.

African nations are waiting for another vaccine. While 50 of the richest countries in the world have administered about 40 million doses, only two in sub-Saharan Africa – the island states of Mauritius and the Seychelles – have started firing. The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, warned last week that the accumulation of vaccine-rich countries is a “catastrophic moral failure.”

“The price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the poorest countries in the world,” he said.

These dynamics cause many scientists to warn of an additional increase in winter infections in the southern hemisphere in May and June.

“We will get a third wave, even a fourth … There is no light at the end of the tunnel for African countries,” said Tivani Mashamba, a professor of diagnostic research at the University of Pretoria. “This pandemic has only just begun.”

Certainly, the known number of deaths in Africa is still much lower than in the US and Europe. Lack of testing capacity, limited access to data and secret governments have made it difficult to determine the true scale of the virus on much of the continent.

Scientists in Zambia tested corpses at the main morgue in Lusaka for Covid-19 during the first wave of infections in the country between June and September and found that almost 20% were positive. Only a fraction had been tested for the disease before he died. The average age of those found to have died from Covid-19 was 48, much lower than in developed countries.

The Tanzanian government insists it is virus-free and has criminalized reports of a pandemic. However, Ghanaian scientists recently discovered the South African strain of coronavirus in a traveler from Tanzania.

Growth is putting 1.2 billion people underfunded healthcare across the continent. Hospital beds are depleting in Zambia and Uganda, forcing many people to be treated at home. From Senegal to South Africa, thousands of workers crowd into common minibus taxis, despite a record increase in new infections. Even in countries such as Rwanda, which was praised during the first wave for its effective blocking and surveillance policies, the recent increase in cases has been much higher.

“We see a number of patients passing by and taking patients away,” said Rashida Ferrand, a professor of international health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who also works at Covid-19’s main public treatment center at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare. , Zimbabwe. “It is the principle of first come, first served.”

All 60 seats in the hospital’s Covid-19 isolation section are occupied, as are the hospital’s four intensive care beds, while many nurses become ill.

In the first two weeks of January, about 40 percent of the medical staff at Harare’s main public hospitals with symptoms of Covid-19 tested positive, according to doctors leading the program. Earlier this month, the country lost its foreign, transport and provincial affairs ministers to Covid-19.

In South Africa, the recent rise in infections coincided with the discovery of the South African variant, which researchers say is up to 50% more transmissible than previous versions. During the holidays, thousands of migrant workers traveled home from South Africa, taking the new strain with them in crowded buses to neighboring Zimbabwe, nearby Mozambique and Zambia – all with record increases in cases in the coming weeks.

Researchers in Zambia and doctors in Botswana quickly discovered that patients there were suffering from this variant. Other countries, such as Zimbabwe, do not have the infrastructure to sequence the viruses found in the Covid-19 tests.

Meanwhile, there is an acute shortage of oxygen on a continent with fewer fans than in New York, which has less than 1% of Africa’s population.

In Zimbabwe and Nigeria, a black market for oxygen tanks has appeared on social networks, forcing relatives of the sick to resent each other for insufficient supply.

UniGas, one of Zimbabwe’s leading medical oxygen providers, sends more than 100 requests a day to family members looking for oxygen tanks and concentrators to treat sick relatives at home. The company has added additional staff and exchanges for disinfecting and refilling bottles. “We work non-stop,” said Kuda Katurura, the company’s chief executive.

In Nigeria, the air force is manufacturing an emergency oxygen source after an increase in cases in Lagos, the continent’s most populous city. The lack is particularly acute in public hospitals, where doctors say they are forced to ration oxygen and, in some cases, refuse treatment.

“We have only a small amount of oxygen in intensive care for the worst cases,” said Folarin Opawoye, a doctor in Lagos. “We have to run between floors carrying canisters to try to save patients.”

In the Senegalese capital, Dakar, the government is fighting to get citizens to comply with social segregation measures, such as a night extinguisher.

“Those in power, with or without control, have the means to take care of their families,” said Mamadou Fall, a driver who usually takes visitors to and from the city’s international airport. “But we have to take into account the poor people who live in working-class neighborhoods.”

Write to Joe Parkinson at [email protected] and Gabriele Steinhauser at [email protected]