Young Population Will Help Africa Escape Massive Death Toll – WHO

The World Health Organisation, WHO says Africa’s young and fit population will help the continent avoid an enormous death toll from coronavirus.

The United Nations health agency predicts more than a quarter of an estimated 1.2 billion Africans will contract the virus within a year.

According to its mathematical model which studied 47 nations, over a fifth of Africans (22 per cent) are expected to contract COVID-19, a figure totalling around 264 million.

Of these infections, up to 44million people will express symptoms of COVID-19 and up to 5.5million will likely be admitted to hospital.

Approximately 140,000 people would express severe COVID-19 symptoms, with 89,000 becoming critically ill. 

It therefore estimated that some 150,000 lives would be lost as a result, but that the figure could be as high as 190,000.

Data analyst Humphrey Karamagi told The Guardian Africa has a young population compared to other parts of the world and this will help keep the transmission rate down and reduce deaths.  

The continent also has low levels of obesity which doubles the risk of dying from COVID-19, according to a recent British study.

The WHO researchers say their analysis took into account variation in cultures, societies and healthcare systems. Adding that it did not include data from Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.

Of Africa’s largest countries, the research predicts Cameroon, South Africa, and Algeria would be most at risk from severe outbreaks. 

The researchers predict Nigeria may have the largest number of infections overall but not the most per capita, by virtue of having the largest population in Africa with almost 200 million individuals, approximately a sixth of all Africans.

Algeria and South Africa will have the second and third highest amount of infections. 

However, less urbanised countries such as Angola, Botswana and Mozambique are poorly connected and infection spread is therefore likely to be limited. 

Recall that Meridian Spy reported yesterday Thursday WHO said the virus may be here for a long time.

But some scientists warned that the virus will be hard to eradicate completely in Africa and may linger in communities for several years.

Egypt is the African country with the highest death toll so far, with 571 COVID-19-related fatalities. South Africa has the most infections, with almost 13,000 confirmed cases, according to Daily Mail.