Africa could potentially be one of the worst case scenarios if everything doesn't go just right! Just consider this fact: "in the whole of Kenya, a country of 50 million people, there are 200 critical care beds."
Concern Grows Over Africa's Readiness For Coronavirus
March 19, 20204:31 PM ET
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The coronavirus was late to appear in Africa, but the number of cases there is now expanding dramatically. That is a great cause for concern because many countries in Africa are ill-equipped to deal with the health challenges posed by COVID-19. NPR's Eyder Peralta is monitoring developments from his base in Nairobi, Kenya.
Hey, Eyder.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: All right. So first, can you just give us an idea of the overall number of cases in Africa at the moment?
PERALTA: The whole continent has more than 700 cases. And the thing is that last week, we didn't even have a hundred cases. Last week, we had only a handful of countries reporting cases. Now we have 33 of them.
Earlier today, I spoke to Dr. Ahmed Kalebi, who is the CEO of Lancet Labs here in Kenya. And he's actually in self-quarantine because he has COVID-19 symptoms, but he's really worried because he says those numbers may be really low. African countries, he says - they're just not getting enough tests. And Kenya, he says, has only a couple of hundred tests left. So they're just not testing widely. He says he actually tried to buy kits for his private lab, and the manufacturer told him he couldn't buy them for at least four weeks because they were being sent to the U.S. or to Europe. Let's listen.
View: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/818518681