Coronavirus Spillover From South Africa Felt In Neighboring Countries - WHO

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2020) Countries bordering South Africa are seeing a surge in coronavirus cases driven by their proximity to the continent's epicenter of the epidemic, the WHO Health Emergency Programme's regional adviser for Africa told Sputnik.

"What we are seeing in the recent two weeks is that countries around South Africa are getting more of a spillover and we see a high percentage of increase in number of cases," Miriam Nanyunja said.

The spillover has affected countries like Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe the most. Countries far from South Africa, such as Algeria and Madagascar, have a relatively high levels of infection, while Uganda, Rwanda, Mauritius and Seychelles have been fairing much better.

"One of the common factors is the disease affecting the largest cities with quite a high number of people residing in those cities. This is one of the key issues that may be cutting across all," the WHO official said.

She added that the biggest share of cases was reported in a group of 10 African countries, each affecting their respective region.

"We have South Africa, which is in the southern region; we have Kenya and Ethiopia in the eastern region; we have West Africa - Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal; central Africa - the DRC, Cameroon. We have counties in different regions that are leading in terms of numbers and contributing to the big burden of the region," Nanyunja said.

The World Health Organization urges countries to ramp up compliance with prevention measures to stem COVID-19 transmission and prepare for a further increase in the number of cases.

"As the countries are releasing the restrictions there is also effort on increasing and sustaining, ramping up prevention measures so that we can limit transmission. But countries also at this point need to plan - and we are guiding them, they are trying to plan for the near future in case the number of cases increases. They are trying to prepare more space, more health workers," Nanyunja said.

In particular, African countries are looking out for vulnerable populations and drawing up differentiated strategies on how to reach out to them and protect them from severe impacts of the outbreak, she explained.

As of Friday, Africa's COVID-19 tally has surpassed 786,000 cases. Over 435,000 people have recovered, and 16,000 have died since the onset of the pandemic. A report released by WHO African region on Wednesday estimated that 10 countries accounted for 88 percent of all confirmed cases, with South Africa accounting for more than half of them.