Africa now has 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases, but testing shortages mean many infections are missed on the continent with the world’s most fragile health systems. ‘We are fighting this disease in the dark,’ an expert says.
Recently filled graves are seen in the Olifantsveil Cemetery outside Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday Aug. 5, 2020. The frequency of burials in South Africa has significantly increased during the coronavirus pandemic, as the country became one of the top five worst-hit nation. New infection numbers around the world are a reminder that a return to normal life is still far from sight.
The World Health Organization calls the milestone a “pivotal point” for Africa as infections in several countries are surging. The virus has spread beyond major cities “into distant hinterlands” where few health resources exist and reaching care could take days.Immediately knowing they were at a disadvantage, African nations banded together early in the pandemic to pursue badly needed testing and medical supplies andto any successful vaccine. Swift border closures delayed the virus’ spread.
Just two African countries at the start of the pandemic were equipped to test for the virus. Now virtually all have basic capacity, but supplies are often scarce. Some countries have a single testing machine. Some conduct fewer than 500 tests per million people, while richer countries overseas conduct hundreds of thousands. Samples can take days to reach labs. Even in South Africa, turnaround times for many test results have been a week or longer.
For Resolve to Save Lives senior vice president Amanda McClelland, the more worrying number is not the overall cases but the health workers infected across Africa — now about 35,000. That affects care for everyone on a continent whose shortage of workers has been called catastrophic. In Burkina Faso, Yaya Ouedraogo lost his uncle and cousin in April. Both were in their 70s with a history of high blood pressure and diabetes, and both had complained of shortness of breath, fever and body pain, he said.
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