Impact of COVID-19 On Sub-Saharan Africa

Impact of COVID-19 in Sub Saharan Africa

By Michael Leonard Douglas

*Calamity News and Politics.com

*Our Man in Africa: Michael Leonard Douglas grew up in Birmingham, England. Michael has an undergraduate degree in Arts, with a major in Design.  Michael currently resides in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to contributing to Calamity Politics, Michael manages a freelance writing company, WritersInc. Michael’s first piece for Calamity Politics was, “Animal Cruelty Linked to Human Rights.” 

COVID-19 Lands

Nigeria became the first Sub-Saharan African country to report a case of the novel coronavirus on February 25th 2020. The patient was an Italian who had flown in from Milan, Italy. Italy was one of the places hardest hit by COVID-19. Since it’s arrival in Sub-Saharan Africa, the disease has spread dramatically. The statistics change daily but as of last week South Africa led with 622,551 total cases followed by Nigeria at 53,727 cases, Ethiopia at 49,654 cases, and Ghana at 43,949 cases (WHO, 2020).

COVID-19 Measures in Africa

The moment the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in February 2020, African countries rapidly established containment measures including,, the closure of borders, active promotion of hand washing, social gathering restrictions, and mask wearing. A COVID-19 awareness campaign was activated to debunk rising myths and mistruths surrounding the disease (Osseni, 2020). These quick actions taken by Sub-Saharan African governments are, so far at least, working to keep case numbers down.  In fact, Africa south of the Sahara still has a lower case rate than most of the world.

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