The World Health Organization [WHO] has said that Africa could become the next epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid concerns over the continent’s vulnerability to the virus.
The WHO is concerned that Africa’s lack of resources such as ventilators could make it particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, while the virus also has the potential to spread much more rapidly in heavily populated and overcrowded zones where people do not have easy access to clean water and products such as soap and hand sanitizer.
The past week has yielded a rise in reported cases of Covid-19 in Africa, with 18,000 recorded across the continent with almost 1,000 deaths as of 10:30 BST on Friday.
Speaking to the BBC, the WHO’s Africa director Dr Matshidiso Moeti said that the virus was moving away from African capitals and heading toward the more remote "hinterland" areas in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Dr Moeti explained that the lack of capacity in African hospitals renders it unprepared for a pandemic and so the WHO's strategy has been centred around prevention as opposed to treatment in Africa thus far.
Dr Moeti said: "We want to minimise the proportion of people who get to the point of needing critical care in an ICU, because we know that these types of facilities are not adequate by any means in the majority of African countries.
"I have to say the issue of ventilators is one of the biggest challenges that the countries are facing."
