COVID-19 is going all around the world, but how it moves around the world is a question of time. The continent of Africa, which for many reasons has had inconsistent reporting on COVID-19 cases, is experiencing a surge of cases, and as Zero Hedge notes, it poses a grave threat to the large and resource rich home of almost a billion people.
By the first week of April, coronavirus cases in African topped 10,000. Now over a month later that number stands at 88,172 according to the CDC Africa dashboard.
This after a past 24-hour rise in cases by 2,538 according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa on Tuesday. Across the continent at least 2,834 people have died from COVID-19.
The outbreak first appeared in Egypt in mid-February via what’s believed sourced to foreign travelers, and has since spread to all 54 countries on the continent.
Last month the WHO’s regional director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, sounded the alarm in saying the pandemic in African looks to be potentially devastating: “COVID-19 has the potential not only to cause thousands of deaths, but to also unleash economic and social devastation,” Moeti said.
The biggest clusters appear concentrated in those regions conssidered the busiest hubs of international and foreign travel, such as Egypt and Morocco in the north, and South Africa at the southern tip. (source)