Leap of 50% in cases in three months, ‘infecting 11 health workers an hour’
Across the continent, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are stretched to the limit as the total cumulative number of infections this week rose above 4.1m, with more than 110,000 fatalities, a sharp rise on the 2.7m infections recorded at the end of December. South Africa leads with more than 1.5m reported cases and more than 52,000 deaths.
The WHO said only 7 million people had now been vaccinated in a continent of more than a billion people.
The global health body stated that infections were on the rise in at least 12 countries in Africa including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya and Guinea. In Kenya, positivity rates are up to at least 20% and the country has some 123,000 reported cases with 14,000 cases reported this month alone. All the country’s intensive-care unit beds had been filled by Covid-19 patients and doctors had fallen ill with the virus themselves. “People are waiting for others to die to get a bed.”
Covid third wave may overrun Africa's healthcare, warns WHO | Global development | The Guardian
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