On Wednesday, March 18, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared that while Africa so far had seen few cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), the continent should “prepare for the worst”.
“Africa should wake up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in a virtual news conference.
He said:
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