Abstract
The novel coronavirus is a pandemic that has started to creep into Africa thus making the virus a truly global, health security threat. The number of new 2019-nCoV cases has been rising in Africa, though currently lower than the cases reported outside the region. African countries have activated their Emergency Operations Centres to coordinate responses and preparedness activities to the pandemic. A series of measures such as restricting travel, case detection and contact tracing, mandatory quarantine, guidance and information to the public among other efforts are being implemented across Africa. However, the presence of porous borders, the double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, poverty, poor health literacy, infodemic and family clustering, and most of all, weak health systems, may make containment challenging. It is important for African countries to continue to intensify efforts and address the challenges to effectively respond to the uncertainty the pandemic poses.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus outbreak as pandemic after it was previously referred to as a global health emergency
As coronavirus spreads across the globe, African countries are not spared from the impacts on the global health security
This article aims at providing a critical commentary on the current efforts against 2019-nCoV pandemic and the challenges facing its responses in the African continent
Summary
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus ( called COVID-19, or 2019nCoV, or SARS-CoV-2) outbreak as pandemic after it was previously referred to as a global health emergency. As of 18 April 2020, 21,761 cases and 1082 deaths have been reported in 52 African countries and the most affected countries (number of confirmed cases) are South Africa (3034), Egypt (3032), Morocco (2685), Algeria (2534) and Cameroon (1017) [1]. As of 14 April 2020, fifteen countries (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Algeria, Egpyt, Mauritania, Morocco, Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, the Gambia, Liberia and Mali) have reported case fatality rates higher than the global case fatality rate of 6% [1]. By 18 April 2020, more than 40 African countries have reported local transmission. This further reinforces the presence of human-tohuman transmission of 2019-nCoV
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