Africa: Coronavirus Updates Country list and Lockdown Situation

Although most COVID-19 cases in the United States, Europe, and China have been identified, the virus rapidly spreads across the African continent. The confirmed cases of this virus in the world have exceeded the total of 3,075,538. The World Bank Group, one of the developing countries’ largest sources of funding and expertise, is taking strong, rapid action to improve developed countries’ response to the pandemic. They increase the control of diseases and strengthen public health initiatives and help the continued activity and the creation of employment by the private sector. In the next 15 months, up to $160 billion will be used to provide help for countries that are poor and vulnerable, finance businesses and encourage economic recovery, including $50 billion in new IDA grant or extremely concessional funding.

Lockdown Situation in Africa:

Lock-downs and proper treatment and intervention would have been combined to encourage people to survive those lock-downs. A decision to lock down is frequently made between the lesser of two evils or not, particularly in fragile countries. When a nation locks up, the government must do whatever it can to improve society’s resilience, even with minimal resources. On Monday, after approving the reopening of some companies during the Ramadan era, Algeria extended containment measures to restrict the dissemination of the new coronavirus until 14 May. President Mokgweetsi Masisi said on Monday that harsh lockdown regulations in Botswana would last until the first week of May. The initiatives are now easing in Ghana, worried about their effects on the poor and about taking more action to fight the virus.

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The lockout restrictions on Ghana’s major cities have now been lifted in large part. Yet social gatherings and public hearings are still prohibited, boundaries are closed and school closures are still in place. Nigeria has announced that the lockdown in Lagos and Abuja will be eased on 4 May. Morocco has extended the lockdown until 20 May for a further month. In parts of its capital, Kinshasa, which have been severely affected by a coronavirus, the Democratic Republic of Congo also has removed some restrictions. In mid-March and the government closed educational centres Tanzania reported on its first case, but public or religious events were not forbidden and international flights were only suspended.

The government of South Africa said it is slowly easing the lockdown on 30 April, but it is enforcing one of the toughest lockdowns in the world. It has shut down schools and universities, restricted access to hospitals and prisons and limited movement for key staff. All public meetings except funerals are forbidden and the army is deployed to execute them. Although it only had a small number of infections, Zimbabwe was locked down totally about the same time. There was a partial lockdown in Kenya, travelling to and from major cities was prohibited. It also had a nationwide overnight curfew, leading to over 400 arrests of infringements. Dr Malachie Manaouda, Minister of Public Health has denied claims from the government that Douala and Yaoundé will be shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak in Cameroon.

The prime minister said on Thursday that new coronaviral infections hit the highest daily levels since the first infection was reported in February, that Egypt will ease its coronaviral lockdown for the holy fasting month of Ramadan by enabling more businesses to reopen and shorten a shorter night-time curfew. Cabo Verde: In order to reduce the burden on the country’s forests, the Mozambican government has declared a two-year end to new logging licences. In Morocco, According to the official MAP news agency, Moroccan police started using a smartphone application in recent days to track Kingdom lockdown criminals as a result of the coronavirus.

The application has been designed and launched by developers from the DGSN national security unit in the country overnight on Tuesday. Côte d’Ivoire has explicitly taken steps to combat the spread within its borders of the COVID-19 pandemic by enforcing both travel restrictions and limiting domestic circulation. It remains to be seen whether these measures were too late and if the Ivorian population was meeting the requisite lockdown. If not, it is possible that coronavirus not only overwhelms the country’s health systems, but also the country’s culture, policy and stability.

Data Source: APO, World Bank Group and WHO.