Covid-19 Cases In Africa Could Surge To 10 Million In Six Months

A world Health Organisation model has projected that Africa could have about 10 million cases in the next three to six months.

The new projection, according to WHO, is based on how some countries in Africa have acted to tame the spread of the deadly virus.

WHO officials said the model is just provisional and the predictions are based on the current situation in the continent.

In their argument, WHO officials said even the worst-case scenario predicted for the Ebola disease did not come to pass because people changed their behaviors.

Michel Yao, head of emergency operations for WHO Africa, noted that Government measures, as well as public health measures, could impact the intensity of the current situation in Africa.

“This is still to be fine-tuned,” he told a media teleconference. “It’s difficult to make a long-term estimation because of the context changes too much and also public health measures when they are fully implemented, they can have an impact.”

With behavior change being the key move to taming the spread of the Coronavirus, it is not a practical thing in some African countries.

Some countries are still allowing their citizens to gather in crowds, interact without wearing safety gear and defying most of the Public, Health and Safety standards put in place to curb the spread of contagious infections like Coronavirus.

In Burundi for example, political leaders were encouraging their citizens to continue with normal lives since God Loved them.

The political leaders in Burundi were even calling for political rallies, despite some people in the country being tested positive for the Covid-19 at the time.

Even though the country had a few numbers of Covid-19 patients at the time, their recklessness was endangering their lives and the lives of other people in the neighboring countries.

WHO was forced to intervene and advise the leaders in Burundi before things could go out of hand.

However, in other countries, stringent measures have been put in place including a lockdown of major cities and towns to limit the movement of people and contain the spread of the virus.

In Kenya, the Government declared the cessation of movement in and out of places marked as the Covid-19 hotspots.

A 7.00 p.m. to 5 a.m curfew had also been implemented to bar social and entertainment places from operating during the Covid-19 crisis.

Wearing a mask in Kenya is also mandatory, with a tough penalty awaiting those who would be caught defying the directive.

Last month, a model by some experts predicted that for the first week of April, Kenya would have 1,000 cases with the number hitting 10,000 at the end of the same month.

Despite the number of cases in Kenya rising daily, the scenario has not been worse and even close to what was predicted by the experts for April.

The low numbers, however, do not call for people to be reluctant until the disease is fully dealt with. Some people would say, if you were careful, be extra careful.

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