WHO optimistic on Africa’s COVID-19 fight in 2022, urges sustained vigilance

Almost two years after Africa identified its first case of COVID-19, World Health Organisation (WHO) has said if current trends continue, the continent could control the pandemic in 2022, even as it warned that continued vigilance remains crucial.

WHO observed that though Africa lags behind on vaccination, with only 11 per cent of its adult population fully vaccinated, the continent now has a steady supply of doses flowing in.

WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, stated this during a virtual press conference, yesterday. She said Africa has witnessed four waves of COVID-19, each with higher peaks or more total new cases than the previous one over the last two years and the surges have been mostly driven by new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which were highly transmissible, though not necessarily more fatal than prior waves.

Moeti noted that each subsequent wave has triggered a response that has been more effective than the previous, with each surge shorter by 23 per cent on average from the one before. While the first wave lasted about 29 weeks, the fourth wave was over in six weeks, or about a fifth of the time.

She said: “Over the past two years, the African continent has gotten smarter, faster and better at responding to each new surge in cases of COVID-19.”

Moeti noted that the continent’s capacity to manage COVID-19 cases has gradually improved with increased availability of trained health workers, oxygen and other medical supplies.

The number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds has also increased across the continent, from eight per one million people in 2020 to 20 today.

She added: “As we enter this new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must use the lessons learned over the past two years to strengthen our continent’s health systems, so that we are better prepared to handle future waves of the disease.

“Since new variants have fueled waves, it is critical that countries strengthen their capacity to detect them through improved genome sequencing. This will also ensure we spot other deadly viruses swiftly.”