The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) head John Nkengasong on Thursday said India’s worsening COVID-19 outbreak should act as a wake-up call for African nations, reported Reuters.
Nkengasong said most of the African nations lack sufficient numbers of health care workers, hospital beds, oxygen supplies, and the continent of 1.3 billion would be even more overwhelmed than India if cases increased in a similar way.
India is currently facing an acute shortage of medical oxygen, hospital beds, and life-saving drugs due to record infections and deaths.
“We are watching with total disbelief…What is happening in India cannot be ignored by our continent,” the Africa CDC chief said while addressing a weekly press briefing on the continent’s response to COVID-19.
He urged Africans to wear masks and avoid mass gatherings including political rallies as they give the opportunity for the virus to spread. He warned that they cannot and should not find themselves in a scenario like India because of the very fragile nature of the health systems of African countries.
Nkengasong said the Africa CDC has called for an emergency meeting with the African Union next week to put everybody on alert and come up with a collective action plan.
“We should not and cannot let our guards down,” he warned.
Notably, Africa’s vaccine situation is also closely linked to India as it is the source of the AstraZeneca vaccines distributed by the global COVAX initiative to low- and middle-income countries.
The Africa CDC head said India’s ban on vaccine export has severely impacted the predictability of the rollout of vaccination programs and will continue to do so for the coming weeks and perhaps months. Only 17 million vaccine doses have been administered across the African continent which is home to a population of some 1.3 billion.
