18/01/2021
Africa?s under-strain hospitals battle coronavirus surge
A growing coronavirus second wave is threatening to overwhelm fragile healthcare systems across Africa after months of relatively mild impact across the continent, officials have warned. Authorities in Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as international organisations, say hospital capacity and oxygen supplies are running out as the continent-wide death rate this month surpassed the global average for the first time. ?It is very severe,? Dr John Nkengasong, head of the AU?s Africa Centres for Disease Control, told reporters last week. He appealed to African leaders to subsidise masks because ?for now [they] are the best vaccines that we have?....
