After nightfall, gravediggers across Tanzania gather in hazmat suits to pile the latest coronavirus victims into secret graves. In South Sudan, the vice president, defense minister and nine other cabinet members have been infected by an outbreak ripping through a nation emerging from six years of civil war. In Cameroon, the military has been ordered to hastily bury anyone suspected to have died of a mysterious respiratory illness.
Across Africa, government numbers show coronavirus infections have been significantly lower than in other parts of the world. But from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to Yaoundé in Cameroon and cities in Somalia and across northern Nigeria, health workers are reporting a reality that bears little resemblance to the official data, with hot spots emerging in countries with few resources to tackle them.
Coronavirus cases in the region exceeded 100,000, with more than 3,105 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a public-health agency of the African Union.
The World Health Organization on Friday said the virus had spread to every one of the continent’s 54 nations and has warned that a quarter of the continent’s 1.33 billion population could eventually be infected. There have been 3,100 confirmed deaths and the United Nations forecast that 300,000 Africans could die as their nations hit a peak infection rate in the coming months. That could be disastrous for a continent with creaking health-care systems, some of the world’s poorest communities and weak governance.
“There are reports of people dying with Covid-like symptoms who will never be tested,” Rosalind Crowther, South Sudan country director with humanitarian agency CARE International, said of the situation across the continent. “The actual number of cases is much higher, the focus will be on home-based care because facilities will never be able to cope with demand.”
“There are reports of people dying with Covid-like symptoms who will never be tested,” Rosalind Crowther, South Sudan country director with humanitarian agency CARE International, said of the situation across the continent. “The actual number of cases is much higher, the focus will be on home-based care because facilities will never be able to cope with demand.”
Only around one million coronavirus tests have been carried out across Africa, according to the Africa CDC, and just two countries—Ghana and South Africa—account for nearly half of the tests.
Many African nations imposed strict lockdowns after cases of the virus surged in Europe and the U.S. Several of the region’s governments including South Africa, Senegal and Ghana have been praised by the WHO for the speed and efficacy of their responses.
Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in many African countries that have fewer weapons to fight it than developed nations. WSJ’s Joe Parkinson explains Africa’s unique vulnerabilities to the virus.
But even in South Africa, the continent’s most developed economy, coronavirus cases have exploded in Cape Town and its surrounding wine lands. Modeling suggests hospitals could become overwhelmed within weeks.
The South African Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, a group of academics and experts from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, warns that the nation’s estimated 3,300 intensive-care beds could fill up as soon as early June, with some 25,000 patients needing that level of care by late August even under an optimistic scenario.
“Covid-19 will likely smolder in transmission hot spots,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s regional director for Africa. “It could become a fixture in our lives for the next several years.”
In Tanzania, a dozen government officials, including a cabinet minister, have died in recent weeks after suffering short respiratory illnesses, though there has been no official confirmation whether any of them contracted Covid-19. Cellphone videos taken by residents and viewed by The Wall Street Journal show dozens of bodies being buried a nighttime in a single mass grave overseen by the police.
“We never got to verify that the body that was buried was really him” said Joseph Mchanga, who rushed to a cemetery in Tanzania’s capital for the burial of his cousin, who had died after days of severe coughing and fever. “The bodies were many and all covered up, we were only allowed to approach after the grave had been covered up.”
Officially, the country of 56 million has only 509 cases, with 21 deaths. But doctors, health experts and opposition politicians say the virus has killed hundreds. Overbooked clinics are turning away ambulances. After the U.S. Embassy issued a health alert, the government abruptly stopped releasing its data in mid-May.
“Poor response has led to massive deaths and nighttime burials,” said Zitto Kabwe, an opposition lawmaker. “The official figures are massively under reported, there is a clear lack of transparency.”
President John Magufuli, who has spent much of the crisis holed up in his remote home village, blamed the national laboratory of falsifying coronavirus tests at the behest of “imperial powers” to inflate the threat of the disease. He also claimed that his son contracted Covid-19 and healed by undergoing steam baths and drinking ginger and lemon.