JOHANNESBURG – More African countries closed their borders Thursday as the coronavirus’ local spread threatened to turn the continent of 1.3 billion people into an alarming new front for the pandemic. “About 10 days ago we had about five countries” with the virus, WHO’s Africa chief Dr.
Matshidiso Moeti told reporters. Now 34 of Africa’s 54 countries have cases, with the total close to 650. It’s an “extremely rapid evolution," she said.
In fact, the first sub-Saharan Africa case was announced Feb. 28. She said she did not believe that large numbers of infected people are going undetected in Africa.
However, she did acknowledge a challenge in the shortage of testing kits. Forty-three countries have testing capability, up from two when the