Africa has unusually low fatality rates from COVID-19, and scientists are baffled – By Alexander Winning (Reuters) / Sept 29 2020
Experts cite a number of possible factors at play, including the continent’s youthful population and lessons learned from previous disease outbreaks
Africa’s overburdened public health systems, dearth of testing facilities and overcrowded slums had experts predicting a disaster when COVID-19 hit the continent in February.
The new coronavirus was already wreaking havoc in wealthy Asian and European nations, and a United Nations agency said in April that, even with social-distancing measures, the virus could kill 300,000 Africans this year.
In May the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that 190,000 people on the continent could die if containment measures failed. Yet as the world marks 1 million COVID-19 deaths, Africa is doing much better than expected, with a lower percentage of deaths than other continents.
The continent’s case fatality count stands at 2.4 per cent, with roughly 35,000 deaths among the more than 1.4 million people reported infected with COVID-19, according to Reuters data as at late Monday. In North America, it is 2.9 per cent and in Europe 4.5 per cent.
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