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SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2020 World
JOHANNESBURG (AP)—More thanonemillion
coronavirus tests will be rolled out starting
next week in Africa to address the “big gap”
in assessing the true number of cases on the
continent, the Head of the African Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said
on Thursday, while one projection estimates
more than 10 million severe cases of the virus
in the next six months.
“Maybe 15 million tests” will be required
in Africa over the next three months, John
Nkengasong said.
The new initiative to dramatically
accelerate testing comes as the continent
of 1.3 billion people braces for its turn in
the pandemic that has rolled from China to
Europe and the United States (US) and now
beyond. Experts have said Africa is weeks
behind Europe and the US but the rise in
cases has looked alarmingly similar.
Africa has suffered in the global race to
obtain testing kits and other badly needed
medical equipment. While the number of
virus cases across the continent was above
17,000 on Thursday, health of”icials have
said the testing shortage means more are
out there.
South Africa, the most assertive African
nation in testing, has carried out 90,000
tests so far, according to its health ministry.
It’s not immediately clear how many people
have been tested across Africa.
One projection over the next six months
shows more than 10 million severe cases of
the virus, the World Health Organization’s
(WHO) Emergency Operations Manager in
Africa Michel Yao told a separate brie”ing.
“But these are still to be ”ine-tuned,” he
said, and public health measures could have
an impact. The West Africa Ebola outbreak
in 2014ž16 never reached the “alarming
numbers” projected, he said.
The Africa CDC Chief expressed concern
for theUSdecision tocut funding for theWHO,
saying it “absolutely will affect (African Union)
member states’ ability to receive support”
from the United Nations (UN) agency. The US
is the top donor to the WHO, but President
Donald Trump has complained about alleged
mismanagement, to widespread objections.
The WHO’s Regional Chief for Africa
Matshidiso Moeti said that for the current
CAIRO (AFP) - The World Health
Organization (WHO) is urging Middle East
and North African governments to “seize
the opportunity” to combat the coronavirus
while numbers of cases in the region are
still relatively low.
“We have to seize the opportunity to act
in the region because the rise in cases was
not so rapid,” Director of the Communicable
Diseases Department at WHO’s Eastern
Mediterranean Of”ice in Cairo Yvan Hutin told
AFP in an interview.
In the region at large, which for WHO
stretches toAfghanistan, around 111,000cases
of the novel coronavirus have been recorded
and more than 5,500 deaths.
That accounts for a small proportion of
the more than two million cases and over
140,000 deaths declared worldwide from the
pandemic. The exception is Iran, the hardest hit
in the region and where the of”icial toll stands
at 78,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths.
Hutin said it is hard to pinpoint a speci”ic
reason for the discrepancy.
“There may be demographic factors at
play because we are dealing with youthful
populations” in the region, he said, referring to
the heavier death toll from COVIDž19 among
the elderly.
In con”lict-ridden countries or “emergency
situations” such as Libya, Syria and Yemen,
low numbers have been reported.
But according to the epidemiologist, “just
because we avoided a dif”icult situation the
”irst time around, that doesn’t mean that it will
stay like this”.
In Egypt, where Hutin led an assessment
team last month, “it is clear that we have more
transmissions now than a few weeks ago.
But it still hasn’t reached an exponentially
proliferating rate of transmission”.
To avoid a situation comparable to Europe
or the United States with tens of thousands
of deaths, Hutin said several inter-related
responses were needed.
These include “community engagement,
mobilisingentirehealthsystemsandpreparation
of hospitals for the arrival of severe cases”.
“The things that can be done are not
necessarily very complicated,” he said, such
as isolating patients with mild symptoms “in
hotels, schools or army dormitories”.
For severe cases, “there is a lot that can
be done such as transforming conventional
hospital beds into intensive care ones”.
Another measure to avoid an explosion
of COVIDž19 cases in the region would be to
increase the capacity for testing. This can be
done with “small machines that can give quick
test results”.
Last week, WHO warned of a shortage
of health workers in the region and of
underreporting of coronavirus cases, as
elsewhere across the globe.
Hutin stressed “the potential seriousness
and ability of this virus to bring the healthcare
system to its knees” if the region fails to take
action.
MiddleEastandNorthAfricangovernments
must prepare “for the possibility of things
going wrong”.
With the Muslim holy month of Ramadhan
starting next week, when people gather to
break daytime fasts, WHO has published a
string of recommendations urging that social
distancing be maintained.
ALGIERS (AFP) - Algerian ex foreignminister
Ramtane Lamamra on Thursday ruled
himself out of becoming the next United
Nations (UN) envoy to Libya, after diplomats
said Washington opposed his nomination.
In a statement to the Algerian press,
Lamamra said he had been invited last
month by UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres to take the post.
“I gave my agreement in principle...
(but)... consultations carried out by Mr
Guterres since then do not seem likely
to result in the unanimity of the Security
Council,” Lamamra announced.
He said he would therefore be calling
the Secretary General “in the coming
hours” to withdraw his candidacy.
Libya has been mired in chaos since
the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator
Muammar Ghada”i.
The country is divided between the
Tripoli-based Government of National
Accord (GNA) and forces loyal to eastern-
based military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
KIGALI, RWANDA (AP) — Rwanda’s
coronavirus lockdown has led to a
protest by refugees and migrants who
were relocated to the country last year
from crowded detention camps in Libya,
witnesses said.
They gathered in their camp on
Wednesday to organise a demonstration
against the lockdown “but authorities
came in quickly and stopped it”, Elise
Villechalane, spokeswoman with the
United Nations (UN) refugee agency, told
The Associated Press.
Nearly 300 refugees and migrants are
living in the Gashora emergency transit
centre outside the capital, Kigali. Rwanda
took them in under an agreement signed
with the UN and African Union after
repeated allegations of dire conditions
in Libya’s detention centres including
beatings, rapes and other abuses.
Some refugees had been approved to
move to countries such as Norway or Canada
— the ”irst large group was resettled in
February—butvirus-relatedtravelrestrictions
have stranded the others for now.
Africa to roll out more than
one million coronavirus tests
biennium, or two years, the region has
received almost USD50 million from
the US.
Of the US decision, she said the impact
will be signi”icant in ”ighting diseases beyond
the coronavirus including malaria and HIV
and “we are very much hoping it will be
rethought”. Overall, the WHO’s 47-country
sub-Saharan Africa region will need about
USD300 million over the next six months
to support what the countries are doing to
combat the virus, she said.
Any reduction in support for African
nations will be painful as the continent has
some of the world’s weakest health systems.
Ten African nations have no ventilators
at all to treat virus patients who need
respiratory support, the Africa CDC Chief
said, but arrangements are being made to
deliver some recently donated by the Jack
Ma Foundation. Nkengasong did not name
the 10 countries.
More than 400 ventilators arrived on the
continent this week as part of the latest major
delivery of essential supplies to all of Africa’s
54 countries, the WHO said.
Nkengasong again called for solidarity
inside and outside Africa in combating
the virus, saying that “COVIDž19 will not be
defeated anywhere on the continent until it is
defeated everywhere on the continent”.
For most people, the coronavirus causes
mild to moderate symptoms such as fever
and cough. But for some, especially older
adults and those with other health problems,
it can cause pneumonia and death.
Millions of low-income people across
Africa are struggling as countries begin to
extend weeks-long lockdowns to slow the
virus’ spread. Nkengasong acknowledged
the economic pain the lockdowns and other
measures create but said “the long-term
gains are incomparable” for the continent.
“We ”ind ourselves between a hard place
and a rock” in balancing the health and
economic needs, he said.
He also made a point of addressing one
widespread concern — the alleged abuse
of lockdown powers by some countries’
security forces. Human rights groups have
said police in some cases have beaten, even
killed, people accused of defying lockdowns
or curfews.
“Security forces should be trained in
non-violent methods in controlling the
population,” Nkengasong said.
South African National Defence Forces patrol the street of a densely populated Alexandra
township in Johannesburg, South Africa. PHOTO: AP
WHO spurs Mideast to use its advantage in pandemic fight
Algeria former
foreign minister exits
UN Libya envoy race
Refugees protest
under coronavirus
lockdown in Rwanda