Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Good morning and good afternoon to the journalists joining us and to everyone watching online – bonjour, bom dia – for this press conference on the continuing COVID-19 resurgence and treatment capacities in African countries.
I am very pleased to be joined for this conversation by the Honourable Dr Jean-Jacques Mbungani Mbanda, who is the Minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bonjour et bienvenue Monsieur le Ministre.
I’m also very happy to be joined by Dr Ishmael Katjitae, who is a physician specialist at the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia. A warm welcome to you and thank you both very much for joining us.
Africa’s third wave continues its destructive pathway, pushing past yet another grim milestone as the continent’s case count tops six million.
Over the past month, Africa recorded an additional one million cases. This is the shortest time it’s taken so far to add one million cases. Comparatively, it took around three months to move from four million to five million cases. This COVID-19 resurgence is the fastest the continent has seen.
New cases have increased for the eighth consecutive week and eighteen African countries are now in resurgence. The Delta variant, which is currently the most transmissible of all the variants, has been detected in 21 countries in Africa.
There is a consistent upward trend in 12 countries, with sharp increases in some, such as Algeria, Malawi, Senegal and Zimbabwe. And although we are starting to see a decline in some countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Kenya and Namibia, case numbers remain relatively high.
As this surge sweeps across Africa, we are witnessing the brutal cost in lives lost. Deaths have climbed steeply for the past five weeks, jumping 40% in the past week. This is a clear warning – our hospitals are at a breaking point. In all 153 000 people have sadly died. Africa is now just 1% shy of the peak in fatalities reached in January.
Under-resourced health systems are facing dire shortages of the health workers, supplies, equipment and infrastructure needed to provide care to severely ill COVID-19 patients.
Health systems that were already struggling to provide essential services to communities prior to the pandemic, are now buckling under the pressure of COVID-19.
We’ve seen hospital admissions in around 10 countries increase rapidly and at least five countries, including South Africa, Namibia and Zambia, are facing shortages of ICU beds.
A rapid WHO assessment of six countries facing a resurgence found just a third of the medical oxygen needed is produced.
The number one priority for African countries is boosting oxygen production so we can give critically ill patients a fighting chance. Effective treatment is the last line of defence against COVID-19 and it must not crumble.
As WHO, we’re working with countries to improve treatment and critical care capacities. In a WHO survey to which 30 African countries responded, only 18 had included corticosteroids in their national treatment guidelines, as recommended by WHO. Nine countries are including medications that are not recommended in treating COVID-19, such as hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir.
So, we are providing guidance to update these protocols in line with the available evidence and to train health workers in COVID-19 case management. We are also delivering essential medical supplies, such as oxygen cylinders, and have supported the manufacture and repair of oxygen production plants.
To free-up bed space, we are working with health facilities in South Africa for example, to reduce admissions for non-acute cases, and in Sierra Leone, to update patient discharge criteria. In Uganda, we have procured more than 300 oxygen regulators which has eased the pressure on intensive care units and increased the number of beds available. We are also deploying emergency medical teams to countries seeking additional support.
Last week WHO recommended the use of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of severe COVID-19 cases, but for now this life-saving therapy is largely out of reach for African populations, at a cost of around 2000 dollars per patient. So, we are advocating for generics to be produced rapidly to make these products more affordable.
The pace of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is stagnating at around three million doses a week. So far 53 million doses have been administered and 18 million Africans are fully vaccinated. This needs to urgently increase, and we are counting on dose sharing arrangements to protect more people from falling severely ill or dying due to COVID-19. We expect the imminent delivery of doses from the United States and some countries in Europe through COVAX, and for COVAX supplies to start gathering speed in the latter part of this third quarter.
Countries such as Ethiopia, South Africa and Eswatini are also dealing with crises that are limiting capacities to implement response interventions, with the risk of undetected transmission of COVID-19. We encourage everyone, everywhere to adhere to preventive measures of masking, hand hygiene and physical distancing, to stop the spread of this virus.
So, I look forward very much to our conversation today with the Honourable Minister and our guest from Namibia and I thank you once again for having joined us.