Finance and health English news | Finance and health, Latest News & Live Updates in English | English News (Latest English News) at Lokmattimes.com

Nairobi, June 25 The number of Covid-19 cases in Africa has increased at an unprecedented pace as the continent grapples amid the ongoing third wave that has posed a dire threat to the continent's public health infrastructure, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said.In a statement on Thursday, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said the continent is grappling with a resurgence fuelled by the easing of containment measures, cold weather and the presence of new variants, reports Xinhua news agency."The third wave is picking up speed, spreading faster, hitting harder. With rapidly rising case numbers and increasing reports of serious illness, the latest surge threatens to be Africa's worst yet," Moeti said in the statement.She said the continent can avert the worst outcomes as it struggles with the third wave of infections, subject to strict adherence to public health protocols combined with speedy vaccine roll-out.The latest statistics from Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention revealed the continent's caseload has increased to 5,288,323, with 139,226 fatalities.South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Ethiopia account for 62 per cent of all cases reported in the continent as three major variants drive the uptick.Moeti said that the Covid-19 cases have been on an upward trajectory in Africa in the last five weeks since the onset of the third wave on May 3 adding that a 21 per cent increase could delay flattening the curve.She said the pandemic was on resurgence in 12 countries citing unrestricted social interactions and the presence of mutated versions for powering the virus's spread.According to Moeti, the Delta variant has been detected in 14 African countries and in the last one month, it has been identified in the majority of samples sequenced in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).She said WHO has deployed experts to some of the countries experiencing unprecedented surges including Uganda and Zambia to boost mitigation measures including timely diagnosis and treatment.Moeti said boosting the capacity of the continent's laboratories to monitor and sequence variants of concern has been prioritised in a bid to reduce the intensity of the third wave.Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Finance And HealthFOLLOW

Finance and health, Latest News

Geneva, June 30 Following a 70-year effort, the World Health Organization on Tuesday certified that China is malaria ... ...

US biotechnology company Moderna on Tuesday announced that India has granted permission for its COVID-19 vaccine to be imported into the country for restricted use in an emergency situation. ...

Geneva, June 28 Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for improving the delivery of healthcare and medicine worldwide, ... ...

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has increased by 33,704 to 18,420,598 within the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said on Sunday. ...

Vaccination and safety measures such as wearing face masks are essential when it comes to fighting the Delta Plus coronavirus variant, World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic said. ...

Geneva, June 27 As the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus disease is spreading rapidly across the globe, ... ...

Vaccination and safety measures such as wearing face masks are essential when it comes to fighting the Delta Plus coronavirus variant, World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic said. ...

Nairobi, June 25 The number of Covid-19 cases in Africa has increased at an unprecedented pace as the ... ...