AfricaPress-Nigeria:<\/p>\n
Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its first Covid-19 death, a high-ranking politician in Burkina Faso, as the head of the World Health Organisation urged the continent to \u201cprepare for the worst\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrica should wake up,\u201d Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, pointing out that \u201cin other countries, we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain tipping point\u201d.<\/p>\n
Africa has lagged behind the global curve for coronavirus infections and deaths, but in the past few days has seen a significant rise in cases.<\/p>\n
Experts have repeatedly warned about the perils for the continent, given its weak health infrastructure, poverty, conflicts, poor sanitation and urban crowding.<\/p>\n
Medical authorities in the poor Sahel state of Burkina Faso announced Wednesday that the number of infections there had risen by seven to 27 \u2013 and that one of them, a 62-year-old diabetic woman, had died overnight.<\/p>\n
The country\u2019s main opposition party, the Union for Progress and Change (UPC), said in a statement that the victim was its lawmaker Rose-Marie Compaore, the first vice president of the parliament.<\/p>\n
South Africa, the continent\u2019s most industrialised economy, reported a more than one-third jump in cases, with 31 new infections bringing its tally to 116 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Nearby Zambia announced its first two confirmed cases \u2013 a couple that returned to the capital Lusaka from a 10-day holiday in France.<\/p>\n
As of Wednesday, a tally of reported cases compiled by AFP stood at more than 600 for all of Africa.<\/p>\n
Of these, 16 cases have been fatal: six in Egypt, six in Algeria, two in Morocco, one in Sudan and one in Burkina Faso.<\/p>\n
Those figures are relatively small compared to the rest of world \u2013 the global death toll has passed 8 800 with almost 210 000 total infections.<\/p>\n
WHO chief Tedros said sub-Saharan Africa had recorded 233 infections, but warned the official numbers likely did not reflect the full picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably we have undetected cases or unreported cases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AfricaPress-Nigeria: Sub-Saharan Africa has recorded its first Covid-19 death, a high-ranking politician in Burkina Faso, as the head of the World Health Organisation urged the continent to \u201cprepare for the worst\u201d. \u201cAfrica should wake up,\u201d Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, pointing out that \u201cin other countries, we have seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[1380,1311],"class_list":{"0":"post-20856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-union-for-progress-and-change","10":"tag-who"},"yoast_head":"\n