India COVID-19 crisis is wake-up call for Africa: AU health chief

Africa CDC chief urges Africans to wear masks and avoid large gatherings, warning of continent’s fragile health systems.

The calamitous COVID-19 outbreak in India is a wake-up call for Africa that its governments and citizens must not let their guard down, the disease-control agency of the African Union (AU) has warned. African nations generally do not have sufficient numbers of healthcare workers, hospital beds or oxygen supplies – and the continent of 1.3 billion would be even more overwhelmed than India if cases surged in a similar way, said John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). “We are watching with total disbelief … What is happening in India cannot be ignored by our continent,” he told reporters on Thursday.