Last week, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, argued that we may be approaching the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic, we’re not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said.
So far, at least 6.5 million people have succumbed to the virus globally – the highest death toll the world has seen since the two wars of the last century and more than twice the total number of people living in Nairobi. In Africa, 255, 706 people had been confirmed dead from the virus as of today. With a positivity rate of less than 0.4 per cent, we can safely say that the storm has calmed, at least here in Kenya.
Every generation has its story. Some are riveting and flowery. Others are sad and long. The story of our generation is an example of those scary stories that claim the most loyal, formidable character. Covid-19 pandemic is by far the biggest story of our time.
When it was first reported in the Chinese City of Wuhan, most people thought it was some usual flu that had overreached its target. But this was not a usual flu, we would soon agree.
That captured, there is an interesting taste with which the Covid story in Africa will be told. You see, the West expected that this thing would be the proverbial last straw that would break the back of Mama Africa; they said we would die in hundreds of thousands. But life has a way of proving us wrong. The most powerful, richest country on earth ended up losing more people than any other.
As of October 8, 2020, Africa had recorded about 37,000 deaths compared to the 580,000 deaths in America, 560,000 in Europe and around 205,000 in Asia. According to United Nations data, Africa’s population is the world’s youngest with the median age standing at 19 years. Scientists argue that young people have stronger immunity compared to the older generation. This partly explains why less Africans died from Covid-19.
The first Covid-19 vaccine (Pfizer- BioNTech) was approved and released into the world by the United Kingdom on December 24, 2020. More vaccines would soon follow. Unsurprisingly, African countries were among the last to receive them. To save face, they formed COVAX, an initiative designed to facilitate “equal access” to covid-19 vaccines globally.
The chief motivation behind COVAX, at least the one on paper, was to help some 46 African countries immunize their people. As of April, last year, one billion Covid–19 vaccine doses had been administered worldwide; three quarters of those doses were administered in just ten countries, majority being in the West.
As of December 31, 2021, a total of 418 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had arrived in Africa, but fewer than 236 million doses had been administered. People are still asking what exactly saved Africa from this thing?
Most people come from the school of thought that the geography of Africa played a major role in the geography of Covid. A study conducted by the University of Maryland found a correlation between temperature, humidity and latitude, and the spread of Covid-19. The spread of the virus accelerated in the southern hemisphere as we went into winter
But as it became hotter in the north, the number of cases dropped significantly, impacting the continental outlook of the pandemic. This explains why South Africa accounts for almost half the total number of confirmed cases and deaths on the continent.
