LIVE – Covid-19: The number of intensive care patients drops below 5,000

Africa

The record coronavirus outbreak in India is worrying African countries that, in addition to the arrival of the Indian variant on the continent, fear that it will permanently limit their supplies of vaccines, which the Asian giant has so far largely provided. With more than 4.5 million cases and more than 123,000 officially recorded deaths on the continent, Africa has so far been relatively spared from the epidemic.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Saturday that “what is happening in other parts of the world could happen in Africa if we take our caution.” “In many countries, the emergence of variants, along with the early relaxation of social and public health measures, as well as the unfair distribution of vaccines, has tragic consequences,” he said.

However, for several months, the epidemic followed “surprisingly similar” developments in the African continent and India, as the director of the Africa CDC, John Nkengasung, noted on Saturday. In addition to a similar population, India and Africa share common points of densely populated cities and fragile health structures.