Africa’s COVID Threat Hits New Level as Delta Variant Spreads Speedily

Warnings are mounting about a fast-growing new wave of COVID-19 infections across the continent of Africa amid insufficient vaccines and weakened healthcare systems.

According to the WHO's data. slightly more than 1% of the entire African population has been fully vaccinated against the disease

Africa faces a rising threat of a Covid 3rd Wave. Infections have surge by more than 300% in the past two weeks. Oxygen supply and oxygen tanks are running out of stock very rapidly. Medical supplies are inadequate. Hospitals are overcrowded and doctors and nurses are overly stretched and exhausted, and never insufficient.

Since the beginning of June, the number of deaths is so high that it’s more than those from March to December last year.

All the medical facilities are struggling to breaking point. Ventilators are not being used because of a serious lack of medical staff.

“We need the public to help us in this fight against COVID. As long as the people out there do not practice those basic things – wearing masks, hand hygiene, social distancing, and getting vaccinated where available, it will be like a rat race we can’t keep up with.”

Most governments have responded to the surge by banning gatherings of more than 20 people and ordering the closure of bars and nightclubs, with warnings of a possible lockdown to follow.

More than a dozen countries have reported their worst figures since the start of the pandemic, with more than 650,000 new cases recorded on the continent between May 3, when the so-called third wave began.

At a press briefing on Thursday, the World Health Organization’s Africa director Dr Matshidiso Moeti warned that “the speed and scale of Africa’s third wave is like nothing we’ve seen before.”

“COVID-19 cases are doubling every three weeks, compared to every four weeks at the start of the second wave. Almost 202,000 cases were reported in the past week and the continent is on the verge of exceeding its worst week ever in this pandemic,” she added.

Moeti said that, among the 14 African countries now in resurgence, 12 have detected coronavirus variants of concern, including nine with the highly contagious Delta variant.

“With the rampant spread of more contagious variants, the threat to Africa rises to a whole new level.”


A recent situational report published by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security stated that Africa “has exhibited a substantial increase in daily incidence since mid-May”, with daily case numbers rising threefold.

The COVID-19 situation in Africa is worrisome. Both the number of cases and deaths are almost 40 percent higher than last week, and hospitalisations due to COVID-19 have increased by a further 42 percent.

First identified in India, the Delta variant is 60 percent more transmissible than other variants. So far, it has been detected in 16 African countries, including South Africa, Uganda and Liberia.

South Africa accounts for close to 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths on the continent, with 60,038 officially recorded fatalities so far. It is struggling to cope with growing coronavirus infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

The WHO will set up a Hub for mRNA vaccines in South Africa, in what is being described as a politically motivated move to counter China's efforts in providing and promoting the Chinese vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm. 

SSO