Congo hit by third wave of COVID after Delta surge, Brazzaville is epicenter: PM Mokasso

Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, Anatole Collinet Makosso informed on October 18, Monday that the third wave of the COVID-19 outbreak has hit the country. He even announced that the capital of Congo, Brazzaville has been considered to be the epicentre of the disease. Citing the Prime Minister, the Xinhua website reported, "I officially announce the occurrence of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Congo, with Brazzaville as the epicentre." 

PM Makosso went on to say that the more infectious Delta strain has largely driven the emergence of the third wave in the country. He further added that this new wave is marked by an increase in transmission counts, rapid progression of the severe form of the variant, and a significant number of fatalities. The Prime Minister even stated that 32 deaths were recorded during the first two weeks of October 2021, considerably surpassing the average monthly death total seen since the COVID wave commenced in March 2020. 

COVID cases in Congo

Furthermore, the latest COVID numbers provided by the Worldometer suggest that the total number of confirmed cases in the country is 15,962 whereas the total number of fatalities due to COVID is 231. More than 12,421 have been recovered from the disease. To combat the outbreak, the Congolese government has pledged to increase diagnostic capacity from 1,000 to nearly 3,000 tests each day. 

Six in seven COVID-19 cases go undetected in Africa

Meanwhile, this announcement came days after when the UN informed that six in seven COVID-19 cases go undetected in Africa. According to a new WHO report, just 14.2% of COVID-19 infections or one in every seven cases, are found in Africa. Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, and Zambia are among the nations that took part in the research work. 

The WHO Regional Office for Africa introduced a new program on October 14 to improve public testing for COVID-19 in the eight countries in order to halt the spread of the virus. In the coming year, the initiative hopes to approach over 7 million people with quick diagnostic testing.  

WHO had utilised the COVID-19 calculator, which was created by Resolve to Save Lives to assesses infections primarily on cases reported and fatalities, as well as an infection mortality rate depending on population-based studies. It was discovered that till October 10, 2021, the total number of COVID-19 illnesses in Africa was projected to reach 59 million, which really is seven times more than 8 million cases recorded.  

Since the time the disease emerged, African nations have recorded over 70 million COVID-19 tests, which represents a small proportion of the African continent's 1.3 billion inhabitants. Further, in comparison, the United States, which has roughly a third of the world's population, is said to have administered over 550 million tests, while the United Kingdom, which has less than 10% of Africa's population, is said to have conducted over 280 million tests. Thus, the introduction of the new program by WHO in the eight countries will provide assistance to nations in their efforts to stop disease spread. 

(Image: Twitter/ @AnatoleMakosso/Pixabay)