COVID: Africa experiences HUGE surge in cases, as England drops them from ‘red list’ travel restrictions

COVID: Africa experiences HUGE surge in cases, as England drops them from ‘red list’ travel restrictions.

COVID NEWS – Africa experiences a HUGE surge in coronavirus cases with the Delta and Omicron variants running rampant – just as England drops them from ‘red list’ travel restrictions.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday, December 14, cases in Africa are up 83 per cent in the past week, with the Delta and Omicron variants said to be the main reason for the increase. Thankfully, deaths from the virus remain low.

The WHO is reporting that new cases are currently doubling every five days.

Africa recorded more than 196,000 new cases for the week ending December 12, up from around 107,000 the previous week, bringing the total cumulative number of recorded cases during the pandemic to 8.9 million.

“We are cautiously optimistic that deaths and severe illness will remain low in the current wave, but slow vaccine rollout in Africa means both will be much higher than they should be,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

“We’ve known for quite some time now that new variants like Beta, Delta or Omicron could regularly emerge to spark new outbreaks globally, but vaccine-deprived regions like Africa will be especially vulnerable.”

According to the WHO, only 20 African countries had vaccinated at least 10 per cent of their population as of Monday, December 13.

Some countries, like Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad, have vaccinated less than 1%, data collected by Reuters shows.

Earlier today, UK’s Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced changes to England’s ‘red list’ travel restrictions with all 11 countries set to be removed from 4 am tomorrow (December 15) – which includes Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In an announcement made following today’s Covid-O meeting, Ministers have accepted that the spread of the Omicron variant means restrictions are “pointless”.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.