What's new: coronavirus, the danger is still there

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By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

Publicity

We talk less about it but the coronavirus is far from having said its last word… Certainly, Africa is less affected than the rest of the world, we talked about it recently in a previous press review. But here and there, signs of loosening appear and the Covid-19 takes advantage of it to spread.

Example in Algeria: the country “  recorded 463 new cases of coronavirus yesterday , reports the TSA news site , bringing the total of positive cases to 16,404 since the start of the epidemic, according to a new report published by the Ministry of Health. This is a new daily record of contamination. The precedent dated the day before yesterday Sunday with 441 additional cases.  "

Tana is reconfiguring

Another example: Madagascar ... "  Two months after its deconfinement, Antananarivo, the capital, was again placed in confinement, reports Le Monde Afrique , due to a renewed spread of the coronavirus. "The Analamanga region (of which the capital is a part) is returning to total containment," said the presidency, the day after the council of ministers. The Malagasy health authority has reported hundreds of cases daily for three days, including 216 for Saturday, a record for the country. In the capital, the usual nuptial parades of the weekend have given way to funeral processions and in the newspapers, obituaries multiply the announcements of deaths of personalities of all categories.  "

"I don't care about death"

Same phenomenon in Burkina Faso: the deconfinement arrived a little quickly and the barrier gestures were put away. “  The Burkinabé behave today as if the country had turned the page on the coronavirus , deplores Le Pays . In any case, this is the observation that can be made in the scrub and small restaurants and other public places, both in the city and in rural areas. Take a tour of any bar in Ouagadougou and you will fall in love, exclaims the newspaper. There reigns an atmosphere of "I don't care about death". We warmly shake hands; we squeeze like sardines, the couples for one evening are so bonded that it seems that they are going through their first wedding night. In short, the death of the barrier measures has been "decreed" by the people. And we have the feeling that everyone wants to make up for the long moments of enjoyment and release lost due to the Covid-19. And yet, the time is not yet for this relaxation , points Le Pays. Indeed, the Covid-19 is still within our walls. Statistics as of July 4, 53 show 53 deaths and 86 active cases. And when we take a look at the neighboring Ivory Coast, we can realize that we are not far from the critical threshold.  "

Côte d'Ivoire which is the most affected French-speaking African country with more than 10,000 cases. The reason is simple, reports the Infodrome  : "  The non-compliance with barrier measures by the vast majority of the population, including hand washing, social distancing from a meter and wearing a muffler ... Another reason : not all suspected cases will be screened. And among them, the potential carriers of the virus spread the disease around them.  "

Fragile economies…

Finally, economically, the pandemic is starting to weigh heavily. This is what advanced the daily Today in Ouagadougou . "  The Covid-19 laid bare the limits of liberalism, but even more on the old continent this disease demonstrated that the economic confetti that the 54 states make up are of remarkable fragility despite some individual robustnesses like in Rwanda, In Ivory Coast, or in Senegal… And to make matters worse , continues Today , the coronavirus has corroborated other social tensions that we did not need. The closure of places of worship, for example, has aroused hourvaris in some countries, such as Gabon recently, which could be saved. Strongly , concludes the Burkinabe daily, that the respect of the barrier measures is more lively for a rapid resumption of activities in order to interrupt the bleeding. And that improvements appear on the economy side.  "

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• Newspaper
• Coronavirus
• Algeria
• Mali