The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti has called for the urgent scaling up of public health measures to find, test, isolate and care for Covid-19 infected patients and to quickly trace and isolate their contacts.

Moeti said Africa is in the midst of a full blown third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and warned that the trajectory of surging cases needs urgent action.

“We have seen in India and elsewhere how quickly Covid-19 can rebound and overwhelmed health systems. We have now surpassed 5-million Covid-19 in Africa... After 4 weeks of consecutive increase, Africa’s third wave is surging upward and accelerating fast,” she added.

New cases continent wide are up by nearly 30% in the past week and deaths are up by 15%. At the continental level there is a rise in cases similar to the first wave peak in July 2020 and about 50% of the second wave peak in January 2021.

Five countries account for 76% of the new cases: South Africa with 43%, followed by Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda and Namibia. Cases are rising by over 20% week on week in 22 African countries.

Moeti explained that the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and Uganda have passed their second wave peaks.

The WHO is supporting countries to review and implement resurgence plans down to district and local levels, and it is also prepositioning suppliers to be ready to deploy to countries that need them.

Through the United Nations supply portal coordinated by WHO, almost 19-million easy-to-use antigen detection rapid diagnostic tests are being shipped to 39 African countries to expand access to testing.

The WHO is working with countries to ship samples for sequencing to better understand where and to what degree variants are circulating in specific content. So far the Delta variant has been reported in 14 African countries; and Beta and Alpha variants have been reported in more than 25 countries each.

WHO is also using social media channels to promote adherence to the preventive measures and to counter rumours, misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

VACCINE ROLL-OUT

Moeti said the continent’s Covid-19 vaccine roll-out is picking up speed with over 5-million doses administered in the past five days compared to around 3.5-million per week for the past three weeks.

“Almost 12-million people are now fully vaccinated but this is still less than 1% of Africa’s population. Unfortunately 23 countries have used less than half of the doses they have received, including 4 of the countries experiencing a resurgence. These countries are facing logistical challenges, funding and vaccine hesitancy among other factors,” highlighted Moeti.

She explained that the rise in cases and deaths is an urgent wakeup call for those lagging behind to rapidly expand vaccination sites, reach priority groups and respond to communities' concerns.

At the same time seven African countries have already used 100% of the vaccines they received through COVAX and seven more have used over 80%.

Their success is linked to early planning, including resource mobilisation and engaging different sectors and government ministries.

“As WHO we are supporting inter-country learning and experience sharing so that the vaccine roll-out can speed up everywhere. Africa needs millions more doses here and now to curb the third wave and best practice approaches will be key to making the most of the available vaccines,” she said.