WEEKLY BULLETIN ON OUTBREAKS
AND OTHER EMERGENCIES
Week 25: 15 - 21 June 2020
Data as reported by: 17:00; 21 June 2020
...
Coronavirus disease 2019
WHO African Region
222 074 Cases
4 964 Deaths
2.2% CFR
EVENT DESCRIPTION
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak continues in the
WHO African Region, with an increase in reported cases and deaths.
The daily caseload remains high but with differential trends among
countries, albeit with a continuous decrease in the overall case
fatality ratio. South Africa has consistently registered the highest
daily increase, with over 3 000 cases reported daily for the past two
weeks. In this epidemiological week, South Africa and the entire
African region recorded their highest peak of 4 966 and 8 230 cases
respectively on 20 June 2020. South Africa also reported its highest
daily count of deaths, 94, on 19 June 2020. Incidences of imported
cases within the region and clusters of cases among quarantine sites
and prison settings are still on the increase.
During week 25 (from 15 to 21 June 2020), there was a 30%
increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, with a total of
49 074 new confirmed COVID-19 cases reported from 42 countries,
compared to 39 881 cases reported the previous week. The region
observed the highest increase (above 50%) in five countries during
week 24: Namibia 72% (from 23 to 55 cases), Benin 63% (from 295
to 765 cases), Mauritania 58% (from 1 030 to 2 813 cases), Burundi
53% (from 50 to 144 cases) and Eritrea 50% (from 47 to 143 cases).
Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho and Mauritius have reported
zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 75, 31, 20 and 15
days, respectively. Although United Republic of Tanzania has no new
confirmed cases in our database in the last 24 hours, there are no
official reports indicating zero confirmed cases.
A total of 91 new health worker infections were recorded from five
countries including C?te d’Ivoire (33), Sierra Leone (23), Malawi
(14), South Sudan (15) and Uganda (6). An additional 883 deaths
were reported from 31 countries. One new country, Burkina Faso
retrospectively reported 90 health worker infections in this week. No
new country reported a new death for the first time in this reporting
week.
From 15 to 21 June 2020, a cumulative total of 222 074 COVID-19
cases, including 221 763 confirmed and 311 probable cases from
Sao Tome and Principe (310) and Democratic Republic of the Congo
(1), with 4 081 associated deaths (case fatality ratio 2.2%) has been
reported across the region.
The highest number of cases have been reported from South
Africa (97 302), Nigeria (20 244), Ghana (14 154), Algeria
(11 771), Cameroon (11 281), C?te d’Ivoire (7 492), Senegal
(5 888), Democratic Republic of the Congo (5 826), Guinea
(4 998) and Kenya (4 738). South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana
and Cameroon represent the top five most-affected countries,
accounting for 70% of all cases and 74% of all deaths. The other
countries reporting COVID-19 cases are: Ethiopia (4 532), Gabon
(4 428), Mauritania (2 813), Central African Republic (2 808), Mali
(1 961), South Sudan (1 882), Madagascar (1 596), Guinea-Bissau
(1 512), Zambia (1 430), Sierra Leone (1 327), Equatorial Guinea
(1 043), Niger (1 036), Burkina Faso (901), Cabo Verde (890), Congo
(883), Chad (858), Benin (765), Uganda (755), Mozambique (733),
Malawi (730), Rwanda (728), Sao Tome and Principe (698), Eswatini
(635), Liberia (626), Togo (569), United Republic of Tanzania (509),
Zimbabwe (489), Mauritius (337), Comoros (247), Angola (176),
Burundi (144), Eritrea (143), Botswana (89), Namibia (55), Gambia
(37), Seychelles (11) and Lesotho (4).
Among the 222 074 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 113 368 (51%)
recoveries have been reported from all 47 countries in the region.
To date, a total of 5 766 health workers (26% of total cases) have been
infected in 37 countries: South Africa (2 084), Nigeria (987), Ghana
(351), Cameroon (325), Niger (184), C?te d’Ivoire (179), GuineaBissau (174),
Sierra Leone (150), Senegal (147), Guinea (134),
Democratic Republic of the Congo (132), Zambia (111), Burkina
Faso (90), Ethiopia (87), South Sudan (84), Chad (75), Kenya (64),
Gabon (57), Equatorial Guinea (53), Liberia (50), Cabo Verde (40),
Sao Tome and Principe (40), Malawi (35), Mauritius (30), Uganda
(27), Togo (23), Congo (20), Eswatini (17), Botswana (3), Namibia
(3), Benin (2), Madagascar (2), Zimbabwe (2), Angola (1), Burundi
(1), Central African Republic (1) and United Republic of Tanzania (1).
Forty-two countries have reported a total of 4 964 deaths in the
region, including: South Africa (1 930), Algeria (845), Nigeria (518),
Cameroon (300), Democratic Republic of Congo (129), Kenya (123),
Mali (111), Mauritania (108), Ghana (85), Senegal (84), Ethiopia (74),
Chad (74), Niger (67), Sierra Leone (55), Cote d’Ivoire (54), Burkina
Faso (53), Gabon (34), South Sudan (34), Liberia (34), Guinea
(27), Congo (27), Central African Republic (23), United Republic
of Tanzania (21), Guinea Bissau (16), Madagascar (14), Benin (13),
Togo (13), Equatorial Guinea (12), Zambia (11), Malawi (11), Sao
Tome and Principe (10), Mauritius (10), Angola (9), Cabo Verde (8),
Zimbabwe (6), Mozambique (5), Eswatini (5), Comoros (5), Gambia
(2), Rwanda (2), Botswana (1) and Burundi (1). The countries with
the highest case fatality ratios are Chad 8.6% (74/858), Algeria 7.2%
(845/11 771), Niger 6.5% (66/1 036), Burkina Faso 6.0% (53/901),
Mali 5.7% (111/1 961), Liberia 5.4% (34/626) and Angola 5.1%
(9/176).
According to the available data on age and gender distribution (n=6 451),
males 3 895 (60%) in the 31-39 and 40-49 age groups are more
affected than females 2 556 (40%) across the same age groups. The
age distribution of cases ranges from one month to 89 years, with
a median of 36 years. The ages of the deceased case-patients range
from 21 to 88 years, with a median of 56 years.
The distribution of transmission in the region has shown little change
in the past two weeks; 27 countries are experiencing community
transmission, 13 have clusters of cases and seven have sporadic
cases of COVID-19.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIONS
International experts from WHO AFRO arrived in Guinea Bissau
to support the response of the Ministry of Health against
COVID-19. The procedure for deploying emergency medical
team to southern Sudan, Chad and Cameroon is still underway.
Their requests are being processed at the HQ level in Geneva.
A total of 1 952 408 (12% of amount requested) personal
protective equipment and 337 789 reagents and sampling kits
were sent to the 47 countries. The team still faces challenges
around shipping too few supplies because shipments are
made according to readiness status at supplier level and the
availability of flights.
Teleconference calls were held with countries with a focus on
countries with high case fatality rates (Chad), and increasing
numbers of cases (Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa). The aim
was to understand concrete actions taken by WCO so far, as
well as health worker infections, and new WHO guidelines
were discussed, and discharge criteria clarified with Ghana.
Management of critically ill patients with a focus on production
and distribution of oxygen and the Guideline Adaptation Group
reviewed the guideline “Clinical Management of the Pregnant
Woman, Delivery and Postnatal period” with Sierra Leone.
WHO continues to support the response to a new Ebola
outbreak in northwest Democratic Republic of the Congo. The
new outbreak comes as the country continues to respond to
the complex Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the country,
as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s largest measles
outbreak, and a complex and long-standing humanitarian crisis.
The roll out of PACT initiative (Partnership to Accelerate Testing
in Africa) was supported, with aim to increase testing, tracing
and treatment through training of 100 000 health workers to
support the COVID-19 response, increase testing to 15 million
per month for the next six months and support provision of
supportive care to patients.
WHO AFRO continues with the deployment of experts upon
requests by Member States amidst the travel restrictions.
WHO is leveraging on humanitarian flights and also identifying
resourceful persons locally to support their countries.
SITUATION INTERPRETATION
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand in the African region,
with the total number of confirmed cases increasing steadily in the
past weeks and now above 200 000. The pandemic is still driven
by the top five reporting countries, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria,
Ghana and Cameroon which account for accounting for 70% of all
cases and 74% of all deaths. All countries should continue with
strengthening capacities for critical control measures, including
active case finding, testing of all suspected cases, isolating and
treating cases, contact tracing and quarantine of at-risk people.
Intense communication campaigns and community engagement are
still required to increase awareness on physical distancing, hand
washing and cough etiquette.
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https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/332594/OEW25-1521062020.pdf
