The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that there is an alarming spread of Covid-19 in rural areas in Africa and is calling for the strengthening of the continent’s fragile health system. With about 32,953 confirmed cases and nearly 1,193 deaths, the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has stated that the rate of increase in confirmed cases and deaths will be hard to control unless African countries get international support to shore up their healthcare systems.

Ghebreyesus said, ‘We are now seeing clusters of cases and community spread in more than [4]6 countries. We anticipate severe hardship for already overstretched health systems, particularly in rural areas, which normally lack the resources of those in cities’. Ghebreyesus said that he is worried that some countries are planning to lift the restrictions. He said that a number of factors must be in place before the restrictions are lifted. Countries must make sure transmission of the virus is controlled, medical services are available, outbreaks in special settings such as nursing homes are minimised, and importation risks are minimised.

Source: VoA

Photo source: DFID- UK Department for International Development