Rabat – The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported that continental testing is decreasing amid a receding global wave of COVID-19 infections. The global decline in new confirmed cases fell swiftly across the continent, from nearly 300,000 cases on December 27, to only 53,489 on February 14.
While the WHO stresses that its available data on daily new cases vastly undercounts infections across the globe, the dramatic drop in cases means the entire continent is recording less infections than the nation of France, which reported 66,714 new cases on Friday alone.
Read also: Moroccan Health Expert Recommends to Allow Taraweeh Prayers
The precipitous drop in cases following the wave of Omicron infections was felt in Europe too, with daily cases falling from more than 12 million on January 24, to 7.3 million on February 14.
In Africa, southern states where the Omicron variant was first detected continue to have the heaviest case-load. Southern Africa has so far reported 5.1 million cases, followed by North Africa which has to date recorded 3.4 million infections since the pandemic emerged.
Most African states have faced difficulties in procuring sufficient vaccines to protect local populations. Several Sahel and Central African states have only been able to issue less than 15 doses per 100 citizens. This stands in stark contrast with Morocco, where independently procured Chinese vaccines allowed for 144.78 doses to be issued per 100 members of the population.
Read also: Lekjaa Celebrates Football Fans’ Return to Stadiums
During last week’s EU-AU summit, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted that “we don’t want to be receiving crumbs from anybody’s table,” and called on Europe to push for a patent waiver that would allow African nations to produce vaccines independently.
Testing in Morocco has seen a similar drop as witnessed across the continent. With cases on the decline, Moroccan public health officials performed only 14,801 tests on Friday, detecting an encouragingly low 259 new cases. Morocco has performed more than 11 million tests since the start of the pandemic, making up more than 10% of all tests on the African continent.
