An Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) official on Thursday said that lockdowns were no longer the best way to contain the spread of COVID-19, reported Africa News.
During a news conference, the Africa CDC director, John Nkengasong, praised South Africa’s method of responding to the latest coronavirus wave driven by the Omicron variant.
“We are very encouraged with what we saw in South Africa during this period where they look at the data in terms of severity (of infections),” said Nkengasong.
South Africa reported a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections in late November when it alerted the world about the Omicron coronavirus variant. The number of new infections peaked in mid-December at an all-time record.
The Africa CDC head said the period when severe lockdowns were used as a tool to stop the spread of COVID-19 is over. He called out governments to consider carefully using public health and social measures in a balanced way.
Nkengasong added that he feared that coronavirus could end up becoming an endemic on the continent due to the slow pace of vaccination.
He said unless the continent scales up its vaccination to above 70 percent or 80 percent, it might have to face be into a scenario where COVID becomes endemic.
According to health experts, COVID-19 cannot be wiped out completely and might likely end up becoming endemic, meaning it will always be present in the population to some degree, such as the flu or chickenpox.
The latest Africa CDC figures show, less than 10 percent of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Many African countries first struggled to get sufficient shots and later battled to get them into arms.
As per the latest data, there has been a 36 percent average increase in new cases reported in Africa over the last 4 weeks, with an 8 percent average increase in new deaths.
