JOHANNESBURG – An estimated 190,000 people in Africa could die of COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic and the disease could “smolder” across the continent for years, the World Health Organization has warned.
As many as 44 million of the continent's 1.3 billion people could be infected during the same period, the U.N. health agency estimated, based on its prediction model of 47 African countries.
But the projected number of infections and deaths is based on the assumption that no containment measures are taken. In fact, 43 African countries have implemented measures to reduce the spread of the virus, ranging from nationwide lockdowns to restrictions in major cities to curfews, closed schools and banned public gatherings.