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Africa surpassed the figure of 200,000 dead since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic on Tuesday, September 7, the continent suffering from a dire lack of vaccines with less than 3% of its population fully immunized to date.
The fifty-four countries in the region, however relatively spared compared to the rest of the world and which escaped the dreaded disaster scenarios at the start of the health crisis, total 200,254 deaths, according to an AFP count.
After several particularly deadly months, with 27,000 deaths in July and 26,000 in August, the spread of the pandemic has slowed down on the continent in recent weeks. Africa currently has 617 new deaths per day against up to 990 at the end of July, a record.
But these figures are based on the reports communicated daily by the health authorities of each country or by the World Health Organization (WHO) and reflect only a fraction of the actual total of contaminations.
The WHO estimates that by taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, the toll of the pandemic in the world could be two to three times higher than that officially recorded.
Underestimated deaths
In Africa more than elsewhere, contaminations and deaths are underestimated. “The means of screening are very weak on the continent”, explains South African scientist Glenda Davidson. And the registration of deaths is often done in an approximate or inaccurate way, she adds.
The recent decline of Covid-19 on a continental scale is due to a sharp drop in contamination in the most bereaved countries on the continent since the start of the pandemic.
In South Africa, the most officially affected country with a total of 83,899 deaths due to Covid-19, around 7,400 new cases and 234 new daily deaths have been recorded on average over the last seven days, against up to 20,000 cases and 420 deaths per day in July.
The drop is even more significant in Tunisia, which has lamented over the past seven days an average of 1,680 cases and 64 deaths per day, figures respectively down 41% and 39% compared to the previous week.
In July, the government called the situation “Catastrophic” with up to 7,900 cases and 207 deaths per day. But the Tunisian summer was also marked by a sharp acceleration in vaccination: more than 37% of Tunisians have now received at least one dose, against 11% in the 1er July.
“Shocking inequalities” in access to vaccines
“The vaccine is our weapon, insists the South African public health expert, Shakira Choonara, contacted by AFP. It contributes to a change in trends that is starting to make itself felt. “
Yet Africa is the continent where vaccination is the least advanced. Only 8 doses per 100 inhabitants were administered, according to an AFP count, against 102 in Europe and 116 in the United States and Canada.
WHO denounced at the end of August the “Shocking inequalities” access to vaccines. According to the organization, only about 2.93% of the African population has been fully vaccinated, compared to 52% in the United States and 57% in the European Union.
“This inequality is deeply worrying. Of the more than five billion doses administered worldwide, only 2% were administered in Africa ”WHO Africa Director Dr Matshidiso Moeti said last week.
The continent had seen a rapid increase in contamination at the end of 2020 with the appearance of more contagious variants of the virus, but has so far not suffered the devastation inflicted by the Delta variant, especially in India.
Globally, Covid-19 has killed at least 4.57 million people since the virus first appeared in December 2019, in Wuhan, China.