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The coronavirus pandemic was relatively mild in Malawi last year, but a new “devastating wave” is submerging the country’s health system, the MSF medical aid group told the BBC.
The first weeks of January saw the number of Covid-19 cases double every four to five days, according to MSF.
“We now have between 800 and 1,200 new cases per day – and this is probably an underestimate given that the number of tests carried out is still limited,” MSF’s Fabrice Weissman told Focus on Africa.
He says the cases are mostly concentrated in the towns of Blantyre and Lilongwe and it is likely that the South African variant is responsible for this second wave during the holiday season.
“It started in December – the first cases were linked to Malawian workers returning from South Africa and since then it has been a local transmission.
“This strain may not seem more severe, but much more contagious.”
He said the health workers were working extremely hard and competently to increase the capacity of the beds to cope with the situation, but they were also in pain.
“The main obstacle in the fight against the epidemic is the lack of human resources because we have more than 1,100 health workers who have contracted the disease in Malawi … the health workers are deeply affected.”
The other problem was oxygen, which was lacking, he said.
Immunizations are urgently needed but delivery is unlikely before April, he added.
Source: BBC
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