The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said Africa is beginning to slowly “bend the curve” of COVID-19 infections as people continue to adhere to measures like mask-wearing and social distancing that has slowed down the spread of the pandemic on the continent, reported Reuters.
The spread of the COVID-19 outbreak was quite slow in Africa in the early stages of the pandemic, but, the infection rate gradually accelerated especially in South Africa, which currently accounts for more than half of the total number of coronavirus cases in the continent.
John Nkengasong, the head of Africa CDC said on average, there were signs of a decline in new infections across the continent over the last two weeks.
“So I think that is really some sign of hope that we are beginning to bend the curve slowly. We take this news with cautious optimism,” Mr. Nkengasong said. “It’s very, very early, we’re dealing with a very delicate virus that spreads very quickly but it’s important to recognise those slight tendencies that are positive.”
During an online conference on Thursday, Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Director, said Africa reported a total of 73,000 new cases last week as compared to 55,000 cases the previous week.
Nkengasong said although pressure was building in some countries to open up schools, it was better to delay resuming schools until infection numbers have declined substantially.
He warned that a hurried re-opening of schools in Africa could have the same result as other countries like Israel where they were re-opened and then shut down again after infections increased rapidly. Africa’s caseload has been quite low as compared to other continents, a factor that has been attributed to its relative isolation.
Experts have warned that low levels of testing in many countries also mean infection rates are likely to be higher than reported.
