COVID-19 pandemic in Africa

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The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Africa on 14 February 2020, with the first confirmed case announced in Egypt.^[2][3] The first confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa was announced in Nigeria at the end of February 2020.^[4] Within three months, the virus had spread throughout the continent, as Lesotho, the last African sovereign state to have remained free of the virus, reported a case on 13 May 2020.^[5][6] By 26 May, it appeared that most African countries were experiencing community transmission, although testing capacity was limited.^[7] Most of the identified imported cases arrived from Europe and the United States rather than from China where the virus originated.^[8]

In early June 2021, Africa faced a third wave of COVID infections with cases rising in 14 countries.^[9] By 4 July the continent recorded more than 251,000 new Covid cases, a 20% increase from the prior week and a 12% increase from the January peak. More than sixteen African countries, including Malawi and Senegal, recorded an uptick in new cases.^[10] The World Health Organization labelled it Africa's 'Worst Pandemic Week Ever'.^[11]

Many preventive measures have been implemented by different countries in Africa. These include travel restrictions, flight cancellations, event cancellations,^[12] school closures, and border closures.^[13] It is believed that there is widespread under-reporting in many African countries with less developed healthcare systems.^[14] According to the autumn 2020 seroprevalence study in Juba in South Sudan, less than 1% of infected were actually reported.^[15] Similar results were found in 2022 by WHO modelers.^[16]

New variants of concern of the virus were found in Africa: in February 2020 the Beta variant in South Africa,^[17] in December 2020 the Eta variant in Nigeria,^[18][19] and in November 2021 the Omicron variant in Botswana.^[20]

The African Union secured close to 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in the largest such agreement yet for Africa; it was announced on 13 January 2021. This is independent of the global Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (COVAX) effort aimed at distributing COVID-19 vaccines to lower-income countries.^[21] Notably, however, African countries were being charged more than double what European countries had to pay for certain vaccines.^[22] The Group of Seven (G-7) promised an equitable distribution of vaccines on 19 February 2021, although few details were provided.^[23] The United Arab Emirates has also stepped forward as a vaccine provider for the continent.^[24][25]

Despite these breakthroughs, Africa is the world's least vaccinated continent.^[26] At the beginning of June 2021 the World Health Organization reported that COVID-19 vaccine shipments had ground to a "near halt" in Africa.^[27] On 8 June, the Sudanese-British billionaire philanthropist Mo Ibrahim sharply criticized the international community for failing to ensure equitable vaccine distribution across the globe.^[28] By 8 July 2021, only 2% of the continent had been inoculated.^[10]

Several African governments are experiencing criticism for a perceived lack of readiness, corruption scandals, and forcing new lockdowns too late, undermining trust in the state. Currently, twenty of the 39 nations on the World Bank's harmonised list of fragile and conflict-affected states are in Africa.^[29][30]

To support the COVID-19 recovery, Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole would need to raise expenditure by around 6% of GDP ($100 billion), whereas MENA would need to boost spending by 9% of GDP.^[31][32]