As China battles to contain the novel coronavirus, 24 countries have witnessed cases of the deadly virus which has turned into an epidemic. To the surprise of many, Africa hasn’t reported any case of coronavirus despite the strong links between the continent and China. There are genuine fears that the reason why the African continent hadn’t reported a single case of coronavirus until one recently in Egypt, is because of the poor health infrastructure in African nations which is failing to detect the case of the deadly virus.
While many countries have restricted travel to and from China with India restricting all flights to China, most of the African countries have flights from China coming and going with Ethiopian Airways regularly operating flights to Beijing. The virus has largely spread in China because of the celebrations that took place on the occasion of the New Lunar year during which large scale travel took place in China, resulting in the virus’s spread. The virus quickly spread to other countries because of people coming out of China which prompted many countries to restrict travel from China.
To put things into perspective, a Chinese population of over 2 million resides in the African continent with an increasing number of Africans travelling to China for business and study-related purposes. It is no surprise that Chinese travellers make up the biggest group of customers on Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier. Hence, it is difficult to believe that most countries in the continent haven’t had any case of the virus keeping in mind the booming travel between Africa and China. The latest figures from the World Health Organisation put the fatalities of the virus at 1,369 people and infected 46,997 globally.
Last week, Chinese conglomerate Tencent inadvertently released the correct figures of the havoc the virus has spread in China which are starkly different from the official numbers. According to Tencent, the casualties of Coronavirus in China have crossed 25,000 with over 1,50,000 infected. The Chinese government is attempting to hide its negligence and inefficiencies by underreporting the deaths caused due to Coronavirus.
As of last week, only two countries, Senegal and South Africa had the know-how and the resources to detect coronavirus. “We can’t tell if we have had cases of the novel coronavirus and are missing them; perhaps these cases have come and we didn’t detect them,” said Isaac Ngere, a Kenyan-based researcher specializing in the outbreak of diseases. Thankfully, now 19 African nations are able to test for coronavirus, including Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia and Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone, more than 30 Chinese who arrived from China last week are under quarantine in Freetown.“Anyone from China, whether a Chinese diplomat, a Sierra Leonean or Nigerian, as long as your passport shows you left China within past 14 days — as soon as you enter any of our border crossing points, we would detain and put you in quarantine, said Dr Mohamed Alex Vandy, Sierra Leone’s Director of Health Security Emergency Management.
A different school of thought puts the absence of the virus from the continent down to pure luck. Paul Hunter, a UK-based specialist in infectious diseases and epidemics says “If you look at how coronavirus has spread to non-Chinese countries, most of the spread has been pretty much due to the general intensity of travel around the world. There is nothing special about Africa not having seen a case other than a pure chance at the moment.”
A certain section believes that the virus hasn’t spread in the continent because Africans are immune to the virus. Hunter quickly moved to dismiss such rumours, “That is nonsense. There is no evidence what so ever. That is false news, false facts.”
In 2018, the people of the state grappled with the Nipah virus outbreak and the worst flood in the century that claimed about 500 lives and wreaked destruction running into almost Rs 50,000 crore. The state government has declared the (coronavirus) epidemic “a state calamity” with nearly 2400 people under observation. Kerala has three confirmed cases of coronavirus and has dealt with the virus remarkably. State Health Minister Shylaja was quoted: “We took the necessary precaution on a war footing immediately after the World Health Organisation (WHO) alerted the world on the virus”, she said. The state, which effectively implemented WHO guidelines and protocols to prevent spreading of Nipah virus in 2018, urgently initiated preventive measures and put in place the requisite infrastructure, in consultation with the union health ministry. A high-level Emergency Rapid Response Team (ERRT) was constituted to decide on protocols on observation and isolation of suspected cases, treatment guidelines, training for paramedics, drivers, support staff and awareness among the public. The Kerala government also ensured activation of isolation wards in all districts, besides roping in the private sector to prepare isolation wards in the case of an emergency.
It is suspected that health care systems in African nations are certainly not well equipped to tackle the virus and the WHO must act before its too late. When it comes to India, the country’s medical infrastructure has performed well in the face of coronavirus with Kerala seemingly learning from the Nipah virus outbreak.