MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th March, 2020) The comparatively lower number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa may be explained by the difference in seasonal influenza periods, and the infection rate may increase as winter draws closer in the southern hemisphere, the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said on Thursday.
Moeti stated that there was no proven explanation as to why the number of confirmed cases in Europe and Asia is significantly higher than in Africa. However, the official suggested that the current colder weather in northern hemisphere countries may have an effect.
"But we noted equally that there were relatively few countries affected in South America as well. So, our initial thinking ... and I'm not saying that this is our view, whether it was related to influenza seasons because this is a coronavirus like the influenza virus and that we would expect to see an increase [in the number of cases] in the near future," the regional director stated during a virtual briefing.
According to data compiled by the WHO, 635 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Africa since the start of the outbreak, compared to 82,869 cases in the EU, the UK and countries of the European Economic Area.
However, Moeti stated that the number of confirmed cases in Africa was starting to rise steadily, and more countries were being affected.
"About 10 days ago we had about five countries affected, now we have got 30 almost, so it's been an extremely rapid process, rapid evolution, and our main interest is to help the countries to contain this and to delay or prevent local or community spread of the virus," Moeti said.
African countries are hoping to raise hygiene levels and enforce social distancing measures in order to prevent the further spread of the disease. Moeti stated, however, that there was a difficulty in acquiring test kits.
"But there is a challenge of availability of test kits. We are aware that there are some manufacturers in a number of countries that are developing new test kits and we are very keen to work with our colleagues in the WHO to proactively explore those possibilities of test kits," the official remarked.
The WHO regional director also praised the work completed by African nations to ensure that they had suitable facilities to conduct tests. At the start of February, only Senegal and South Africa had these capabilities, but now, a total of 40 African countries can conduct tests for COVID-19, Moeti stated.
Egypt and South Africa are the two African countries with the most confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease since the outbreak began in late December. A total of 196 cases of the disease have been confirmed in Egypt with six deaths, while South African health authorities have registered 116 cases.
