Africa’s COVID-19 related deaths crossed 100,000 on Friday as the second wave of infections spreads to several African countries, reported Reuters.
The continent’s pace of reaching 100,354 coronavirus deaths is slow as compared to North America, which has already registered more than half a million, and Europe, which is soon to hit the 900,000 mark.
The number of deaths is rapidly increasing in the southern part of Africa, especially in South Africa, which accounts for nearly half of the total fatalities. South Africa was ravaged by the second wave of infections caused by a more contagious variant that has overwhelmed hospitals.
“The increased number (of infections) has led to many severe cases and some of the countries really found it quite difficult to cope,” Dr. Richard Mihigo, the coordinator of the immunization program at the World Health Organization’s Africa office, told Reuters. “We have seen some countries getting to their limit in terms of oxygen supply, which has got a really negative impact in terms of case management for severe cases.”
Mihigo said the rise in deaths was mostly reported in countries near South Africa such as Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, raising the possibility that the new 501Y V2 variant identified in South Africa late last year had spread through the southern Africa region.
Earlier this month, the International aid group Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) called for urgent vaccine distributions in southern Africa to counter the spread of the new variant.
According to Reuters data, Africa’s case fatality rate is currently at about 2.6 percent, higher than the global average of 2.3 percent.
Health experts warn the coronavirus cases are clearly under-reported in several African countries because of poor access to healthcare facilities and under-reporting of milder cases. Understaffed health facilities and lack of means have meant many African countries have been unable to do mass testing.
