By Lerato Ndlovu
Africa has recorded a forty-three week-on-week rise in COVID-19 deaths, as hospital admissions increase rapidly and countries face shortages in oxygen and intensive care beds.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa is now less than 1% shy of the weekly peak reached in January when 6294 deaths were recorded.
For the past week Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia accounted for 83% of the new deaths, which changed the continent’s case fatality rate, which is the proportion of deaths among confirmed cases, currently stands at 2.6% against the global average of 2.2%.
“COVID-19 cases have risen for eight straight weeks, with Africa recording an additional 1 million cases. This is the shortest time it’s taken so far to add 1 million cases. Comparatively, it took around three months to move from 4 million to 5 million cases. This COVID-19 surge is the fastest the continent has seen,” reads the WHO statement.
World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti during a virtual press conference said the surge is driven by public fatigue with key health measures and an increased spread of variants.
“To date, the Delta variant, which is currently the most transmissible of all variants, has been detected in 21 African countries, while the Alpha variant is in 35 countries and Beta in 30.
“Deaths have climbed steeply for the past five weeks. This is a clear warning sign that hospitals in the most impacted countries are reaching a breaking point,” said Dr Moeti.
Under-resourced health systems in countries are facing dire shortages of the health workers, supplies, equipment and infrastructure needed to provide care to severely ill COVID-19 patients.
She also said a rapid WHO assessment of six countries facing a resurgence found that just 27% of the medical oxygen needed is produced in order to spike the demand and ensure that demand is kept since it is the last line of defence against COVID-19.
“Hospital admissions in around 10 countries have increased rapidly and at least six countries are facing shortages of intensive care unit beds, Demand for medical oxygen has spiked and is now estimated to be 50% higher than at the same time in 2020, yet supply has not kept up.
“The number one priority for African countries is boosting oxygen production to give critically ill patients a fighting chance,” Dr Moeti said.
The continent has vaccinated 52 million people since the start of the vaccine rollout in March this year, accounting for just 1.6% of the 3.5 billion people vaccinated worldwide. Only 18 million people in Africa are fully vaccinated, representing 1.5% of the continent’s population compared with over 50% in some high-income countries.
