Coronavirus: Africa faces the pandemic Monday, July 6

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7 mins

Africa counted on July 6, 477,497 confirmed coronavirus cases. The virus has already claimed the lives of 11,371 people on the continent, according to the WHO regional office for Africa. The countries most affected by the pandemic are South Africa (196,750 cases and 3,199 deaths), Egypt (75,253 cases and 3,343 deaths), Nigeria (28,167 cases including 634 deaths), Ghana (20,085 cases and 122 deaths), Algeria (15,941 cases and 952 deaths), Cameroon (12,592 and 313 deaths) and Morocco (14,329 and 235 deaths).

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• Madagascar, return to confinement this Monday

The Madagascan capital Antanarivo and its region were again placed in confinement due to the recent outbreak of cases of coronavirus. "  The region of Analamanga (of which the capital is a part) is returning to total containment  ," said a press release from the Presidency of the Malagasy Republic the day after an extraordinary cabinet meeting to determine the details of this reconfiguration. "  The Analamanga region is closed to all traffic, both entry and exit, from Monday to July 20,  " the statement said. The government has decided to tighten the conditions for this new containment, which is intended to be total and as strict as possible.

A digital platform to ensure better monitoring of contaminated cases,
the closure of all places of worship, the deployment of a contingent of 500 soldiers in the capital to enforce the curfew, only one person per household has the right to go out on the street from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The recent outbreak of coronavirus cases worries the authorities. In just ten days, from June 26 to July 5, official figures show 1,112 confirmed coronavirus cases and 16 deaths from Covid-19. André Spiegel, director of the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, explains that Antananarivo is the new cluster of the epidemic, after Tamatave, where the trend has been going down for a week. Madagascar today totals 2,941 reported cases and 32 deaths since the start of the epidemic.

• Morocco, the city of Safi quarantined

The city of Safi, which had hitherto been able to resist the spread of the virus, was affected by the epidemic very quickly to the point that the southern port locality was reconfigured, the Moroccan authorities announced on Sunday.

This decision was taken after an outbreak of contamination appeared in a canned fish factory in Safi. According to the 360.ma site , the factory has around 400 infected people, most of them workers. This caused a spike in the number of infections. Morocco recorded 698 new cases of contamination on Sunday, the highest daily toll since early March. The authorities have therefore placed the city in quarantine and its 300,000 inhabitants in total containment.

Morocco had already started its gradual deconfinement on June 11 by dividing the country into two zones according to the rate of contamination: zone 1, the least affected where the measures had been relaxed, and zone 2 the most affected, where the measures were remained strict to finally reach zone 1. The state of emergency is in effect until July 10 and the wearing of a mask remains compulsory. The country officially has 14,329 cases, including 235 deaths

• Egypt, a dead coronavirus

actress Actress Ragaa al-Guiddawi died Sunday at the age of 81 of the consequences of Covid-19. She had been tested positive for the virus in May and had been treated in isolation in a hospital in Ismailia, 130 km east of Cairo, for more than a month, according to local press. Actress Ragaa al-Guiddawi, known in the Arab world, was first a model before starting a career in cinema with her first film entitled "Ghariba", the foreigner, released in 1985. She then starred in nearly 400 films, plays and soap operas.

• Congo-Brazzaville, for the first time, 3 dead in 72 hours

The Congo records 1,557 cases of Covid-19, 501 healings and 44 deaths, but for the first time, the country has reported 3 deaths in three consecutive days. These deaths were recorded in the three main cities of the Republic of Congo, namely Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and Dolisie. The latter, in the south of the country, is the new locality affected by the epidemic in the Niari region where the two cases are currently being treated.

• Guinea-Bissau, controversy surrounding the assessment of the pandemic

The inter-ministerial commission to fight the pandemic published before the weekend the following statistics: 25 dead, 1,765 confirmed cases and 317 patients cured. But these figures were sharply contradicted soon after by the High Commissioner for Pandemic Management, Dr. Magda Robalo.

“  The assessment which was communicated to us concerning the Covid 19 in Guinea-bissau, does not correspond to reality. It is not even close to that, because of our low screening capacity  , ”she lambasted. Magda Robalo took the head in early June of the cell created last March by President Umaro Sissoko-Embalo to manage an increasingly alarming situation.

The former Minister of Health who was also one of the executives of the WHO says that the balance sheets are much higher. This statement by the high commissioner of Covid-19 shows the limits of the response unit in managing the crisis and that the means of control used until then have not been adapted.

The country has only two centers for analyzes. And the waiting time for the results is too long, suddenly people refuse to be tested. Magda Robalo also criticizes the mode of communication in the traditional media which according to her, is not suitable for passing information on to the populations.

► Read also: Guinea-Bissau: controversy over the Covid-19 figures

• Kenya, resumption of air traffic on August 1

Kenya is gradually easing these restrictions linked to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The country has just announced this Monday the resumption of international and national flights. "  Air traffic inside and outside the national territory will resume effectively on August 1,  " the president said in a speech broadcast on national television. Uhuru Kenyatta also announced the end of the ban on entering or leaving the two largest cities in the country, namely Nairobi and Mombasa, which together with the county of Mandera (northeast), are the main centers of the epidemic. The curfew has also been extended for one month throughout the country. These announcements come as the epidemic continues to spread in Kenya with 7,886 cases recorded, including 160 deaths according to official figures.

• Ghana, the president in isolation

"  On the recommendation of the doctors, the president of the Republic Nana Akuffo Addo, is from July 4, 2020 in isolation for 14 days in accordance with the measures linked to Covid-19  ", can we read in a press release from the Ghanaian Ministry of Information. “  The president made this decision after someone close to him tested positive for Covid. He tested negative, but he chose to take this measure as a precaution,  "the statement said.

• Guinea  : the European Union mobilizes 6 million euros for the fight against Covid-19

6 million euros, or 65 billion Guinean francs, this is the amount included in the contract signed Monday between the European Union and the NGO Alima (Alliance for International Medical), for the response to the epidemic of coronavirus in Guinea, the European delegation announced in a statement. This fund should be injected into a project related to the health crisis and support the populations.

As the  press release indicates, " the project, which will last 6 months, will support the National Health Security Agency (ANSS), under the supervision of the Ministry of Health, primarily in the management of cases of Covid-19, prevention and control of infection, secondly limiting the spread and impact of the pandemic on the health system  ”.

Nearly 1,700 patients have already benefited from this initiative, which targets 3,300 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Guinea. The country has registered to date 5,570 cases including 34 deaths according to the official balance sheet. It is the second EU project dedicated to the response to Covid-19, after the one concluded with the NGO Terre des hommes for 2.5 million euros.

► Read also: West Africa: women overexposed to the coronavirus

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our Coronavirus Info column 

• Our  explanations  :
→  What we know about the mode of contagion
→  Disparities and inequalities in the face of the coronavirus
→  Triple therapy, Discovery… update on research
→  Remdesivir, antibodies and immunity
→  The race for the vaccine is in full swing
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  :
→ “  The response, country by country  ”
→ “  Words of nurses  ”

• After Covid-19, towards a new world?

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

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• Africa
• Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic
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