Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called on Africa to prepare for the worse, saying that it is very possible that there are more coronavirus cases in the continent than what is reported.
Speaking on Wednesday March 18, at the WHO daily press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic, the DG advised Africa to wake up as the cases undetected may be more that the reported cases of the Coronavirus.
“You know as of today (March 18), the number of cases reported from sub-Saharan Africa are 233 cases and four deaths, that is actually in terms of confirmed cases, it is the lowest region.
“But as Mike said, we cannot take this number as the amount of, or the number of cases we have in Africa, probably we have undetected cases or unreported cases. But in addition to that, even if we take this 233 cases as true, we have to prepare for the worst.
“In other countries we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain tipping point. So the best advice for Africa is to prepare for the worst and prepare today. It is actually better if these numbers are really true, to cut it from the bud.
“And that is why we are saying we have to do the testing, we have to do the contact tracing, we have to do the isolation and cut it from the bud.
“I think Africa should wake up, I think my continent should wake up.”
As at Thursday, Africa has 640 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 34 countries across the continent, 16 deaths. There are now a total of 12 cases in Nigeria.
