Africa became the last inhabited continent that saw the rise of COVID-19. As of April 2020, there are over 5,000 confirmed cases since the first reported case on Feb 14 in Egypt.
We are a group of volunteers who created this infographic to track the origins of the early COVID-19 cases in Africa. According to this infographic, 45 out of the 47 COVID-19 index cases were imported from outside of Africa and, up until March 28th 2020, a significant portion of all confirmed cases were imported.
The largest exporting regions are Europe (84.1%), North America (7.7%) and the Middle East (6.3%). Only four cases were imported from China, where the first wave of COVID-19 outbreak was witnessed.
The infographic also maps out African countries’ quarantine policies in response to the pandemic. As of 28 March, 41 African countries had closed their national borders. Other measures were also enforced, including and not limited to curfews, closure of non-essential businesses, and regional or city-level lock-downs.
Intercontinental travel has exacerbated the rapid and pervasive expansion of COVID-19 in Africa. Due to the insufficient healthcare facilities, Africa is ill-equipped to cope with COVID19 if the situation worsens. Slum-dwellers can hardly afford a lifestyle of social distancing. Hand sanitizers and face coverings are unavailable to a substantial number of Africans. The lock-down also poses a serious threat to the livelihoods of the BoP population and SMEs.
The virus knows no borders. We hereby call for global awareness and international collaboration to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa.
We are all in this together. We have no choice but to join hands to walk through the darkness.
To contact the team, email
covid19afrotracking@gmail.com
COVID-19 Afro Tracking Team
No comments:
Post a Comment