Delta variant increased Covid-19 deaths in Africa by 80% in one month, WHO says

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WHO vaccine introduction officer for the African Region, Phionah Atuhebwe, told CNN on Monday that the continent is seeing an unprecedented rise in the number of coronavirus deaths.

“COVID-19-related death rates have increased across Africa, with the highest weekly rate (6,343) to date reported during the week starting July 19, 2021,” Atuhebwe said.

“Deaths have increased 89%, from 13,242 to 24,987, in the past 28 days, compared to statistics for the previous 28 days,” she added.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference on Friday that the worsening death toll and rapid infection rate of the pandemic are “propelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. Which is considered more deadly than the original strain of coronavirus.

Ghebreyesus said the Delta variant – so far “detected in at least 132 countries” – has also increased Covid-19 infections globally by 80% in the past four weeks.

“Almost 4 million cases were reported to WHO last week, and based on current trends, we expect the total number of cases to exceed 200 million in the next two weeks,” Ghebreyesus added. .

Africa “at higher risk”

Atuhebwe explained that most of the new deaths in the past 28 days were reported in southern Africa, which she said accounts for 64% of the soaring death rate with 16,019, while North Africa accounts for 24. % with 6,036 deaths. The two subregions accounted for 88% of all deaths reported in the past month, the WHO official added.

Atuhebwe said at least 15 African countries are currently experiencing an increasing trend in weekly deaths associated with COVID-19.

“The 15 countries are Algeria, Botswana, DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco, ”she said, attributing the surge in Covid death rates to the increased rate of transmission of the virus.

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In West Africa, a resurgence of cases is overwhelming the already strained health systems of affected countries in the region. Less than a million of Senegal’s 16 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, preparing the country for a devastating third wave of infections, which has seen more than 15,000 new cases of Covid last month.

While in Nigeria, an increase in the number of Covid deaths is also of concern. Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said on Monday there had been a daily average of six deaths in his isolation centers over the past week. Sanwo-Olu added that there had been an eight-fold increase in the infection rate in Lagos, resulting in 4,300 confirmed cases in July alone, while 352 patients were admitted to isolation centers run by the state.

A slow vaccination effort

Only about 1.5% of Africa’s more than one billion people have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Much of the continent relies on donations from the COVAX Global Vaccine Sharing Program, as well as donations from China, India and the United States.

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The slow vaccination rate in Africa is largely driven by global vaccine inequalities, as wealthier countries in the West stock more Covid vaccines than they need.

Ghebreyesus called the global distribution of vaccines “unfair” while expressing concern that Africa is at a higher risk of being invaded by the pandemic due to vaccine shortages.

“All regions are at risk, but none more so than Africa … Many African countries have prepared well to deploy vaccines, but vaccines have not arrived,” he said. . “This is a very serious problem if we are to take action against and end this pandemic.”

Immunization efforts are stepping up as donations pour in. The United States sent millions of doses this week to countries like Senegal, South Africa and Nigeria.

Over the weekend, Nigeria received delivery of 4 million doses of the Moderna vaccine on Sunday, in addition to more than 4 million doses of Oxford / AstraZeneca previously received from COVAX in March, the agency said on Monday. vaccination program of the country. Over 2 million people have so far been vaccinated in Nigeria, including over 1 million fully vaccinated.
South Africa took delivery 2.8 million of the 5.6 million Pfizer vaccines expected to be donated by the US government. The country has recorded more than 2 million cases of Covid and 72,000 deaths, the highest in Africa.

WHO had unveiled plans to help countries immunize at least 10 percent of their populations by the end of September. The world health body now claims that just over half of the countries in the world have vaccinated 10 percent of their population.

However, nearly 70 percent of African countries will not reach this milestone by September, the WHO director-general said.

“About 3.5 million to 4 million doses are given each week on the continent, but to meet the September target this needs to increase to at least 21 million doses each week,” he said.



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