The second wave of coronavirus in Africa was much worse than the first

However, Nkengasong told CNN that public health measures alone would not be enough to stop further waves of the pandemic in Africa. “Without an urgent scale-up of vaccines, we will certainly see the third wave, which has already started in some African countries,” he said.

“Vaccine protectionism will certainly worsen the situation and … be detrimental to global efforts to win the battle against Covid 19,” he added.

African countries rely heavily on the COVAX program, a global vaccine-sharing initiative that provides low-cost or free doses to low-income countries. The offer is however very limited. According to the World Health Organization, around 90 million doses will be delivered to Africa in the first half of this year. This is enough to immunize only 3% of the continent’s population. As more vaccines become available, the goal is to vaccinate at least 20% by the end of the year, the WHO said.

Several countries hit very hard

Of the nearly 3 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 65,000 deaths reported in Africa between mid-February 2020 and the end of the year, more than 82% were reported in just nine countries. South Africa has been the hardest hit, with more than 38% of all African cases reported there. Morocco recorded nearly 16% of all cases, while Tunisia, Egypt and Ethiopia reported around 5% of total cases each.

Cape Verde, South Africa and Libya are the three countries that reported the highest cumulative incidence rates, while 18 of the 55 states reported a case fatality rate higher than the global average, this which means that a higher proportion of people officially diagnosed with Covid-19 have died.

The study authors said early intervention in many African countries kept the first wave of the pandemic relatively under control.

Senegal, Rwanda, Mauritius and Liberia began planning their response as soon as virus alerts were sent internationally and began screening and quarantining travelers at the airport. Ghana and Nigeria have banned travel between cities and implemented curfews.

Mubarak added that many African countries have also focused on expanding testing and contact tracing very early in the pandemic. Senegal built an infrastructure that made it possible to generate coronavirus test results within 24 hours. Rwanda and Sierra Leone reused their HIV and Ebola equipment for coronavirus monitoring, testing and quarantine. South Africa, Cameroon, Mauritania, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and parts of Nigeria have implemented large-scale community door-to-door campaigns to test, treat and isolate potential patients of Covid.

Looking at the 50 states for which data on public health and social measures were available, the researchers found that 36 put strict restrictions in place on average 15 days before reporting their first case. The other 14 countries implemented them on average just nine days after their first case of coronavirus – which is still much earlier than many other countries in the world.

The vast majority of countries had five or more measures in place, including international travel controls, school closures and bans on holding public events and mass gatherings.

However, the researchers found that even though the second wave of the epidemic was more severe, it led to fewer and less stringent public health measures. They said to prevent further waves of the coronavirus pandemic from escalating, African leaders must double down on public health measures and work to improve their testing capabilities.