Coronavirus cases in Africa are rising so quickly that the continent will soon face its worst week since the start of the pandemic, with the more infectious delta variant of the disease becoming more widespread.
Almost 202,000 new cases of the illness were reported in the past week, and infections are doubling every three weeks, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in an online briefing Thursday. More than 5.4 million cases have been reported on the continent, with 141,000 deaths, she said.
“The speed and scale of Africa’s third wave is like nothing we’ve seen before,” Moeti said. “The continent is on the verge of exceeding its worst week ever in this pandemic.”
Fourteen African nations are facing a resurgence of the virus, 12 of which have detected “variants of concern,” including nine with the delta variant, she said.
Africa is the world’s least-vaccinated continent. While the U.S. and U.K. have fully inoculated almost 50% of their populations, that figure is just 1.1% for Africa, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control & Prevention.
