Coronavirus: Africa and the pandemic on Thursday June 18

Text by: RFI Follow

Africa counted this Thursday, June 18, 268,391 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The Covid-19 has already claimed the lives of 7,217 people on the continent, according to the African Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The countries most affected by the pandemic are South Africa (80,412 cases), Egypt (49,219), Nigeria (17,735), Ghana (12,590), Algeria (11,268), Cameroon (10,140) and Morocco (9,042).

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• Partial reopening of Senegalese schools on June 25

It is therefore a new date when a first calendar provided for June 2 but had to be postponed at the last minute after confirmed cases of Covid-19 within the teaching staff. According to a statement from the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, the announcement concerns students in examination classes (CM2, 3ème, Terminale). President Macky Sall announced the closure of all schools on March 14 as part of the fight against the spread of coronavirus. The country has 5,475 confirmed cases with 76 dead and 3,716 cures.

• South Africa continues to gradually lighten its containment

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Wednesday evening the upcoming reopening of restaurants, hairdressers, cinemas and conference centers. In total, half a million jobs are affected.

The precise reopening date will be announced in due course, according to the South African head of state. In his televised speech, Ramaphosa also condemned another "epidemic": violence against women, after the murder a few days ago of a young 28-year-old pregnant woman whose body was found suspended to a tree.

The government also announced that it intends to generalize the use of dexamethasone whose results of a clinical trial - not yet published - indicates that it could reduce by a third the mortality of the most severe cases of Covid-19 .

South Africa has 80,412 confirmed cases with 1,674 deaths and 44,331 cures. The Western Cape province is the most affected in the country. The city of Cape Town, the provincial capital, anticipates a peak of contamination around the end of June or the beginning of July. The large city in the west of the country could have seen its first local transmissions, within the communities, sooner than imagined. This was explained on Thursday by Dr. Keith Cloete, provincial health official and it could therefore explain, according to him, why the area and the country in general are the most affected on the continent. The first test measures, in March, targeted only those with a travel history, thus leaving aside any community and local transmissions.

• Sudan: confinement of the Khartoum region extended

The measure will remain in effect until June 29 at least in the most populous region of the country. The curfew is maintained from 3 p.m. to 6 a.m. From this Sunday, Sudanese abroad will however be able to return by air or by land. They must have a certificate proving that they are not carriers of the virus responsible for Covid-19 or go through quarantine centers where they will be tested. Sudan has 8,020 people who tested positive for the virus, including 487 who died and 2,966 who recovered.

• Vaccine race: Africa does not want to be left behind

The African Center for Disease Prevention and Control of the African Union will host a high-level conference on the subject next week. The boss of Africa CDC announced this Thursday during his weekly press conference from the institution's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. According to Dr. John Nkengasong, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) the Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom will be there. The main theme will be "how can we make a vaccine on our own". According to Dr. Nkengasong, South Africa, Egypt and Senegal have this manufacturing capacity.

In addition, the Chinese president affirms that his country is ready to give priority to Africa for the access to a possible future vaccine against Covid. Xi Jinping made the announcement during the Africa-China virtual summit which took place on Wednesday. Beijing which will also exempt certain countries of the continent from their debt on the loans at zero rate repayable by the end of the year.

• Tunisian hospital staff on strike

Several thousand health workers started a general strike in Tunisia on Thursday and demonstrated in the capital, demanding an improvement in the management of the public hospital and a law framing their status after the Covid-19 pandemic. Nurses and technicians working in public hospitals gathered in front of the Ministry of Health, brandishing banners that read "  public health is a national asset  " or "  professionals will not back down  ".

The demonstrators claim that they got involved in the fight against the new coronavirus, and continued to work during the confinement unlike the other officials. They require a specific law to regulate their status. "  During the Covid crisis, there were two or three sectors which did not stop working and which assumed their responsibilities for the country  ", underlines Othmane Jallouli, trade union official of the general federation of health. “  But as usual, we (the caregivers) are on the front line for the war and the last for the thanks. Caregivers in contact with Covid sufferers lived outside their homes, quarantining 7 to 14 days before they could find their loved ones.

The current provisions, common to all civil servants, do not make it possible to organize work in a specific way in health, nor to pay certain overtime, protest the protesters. If the doctors are very well trained, the Tunisian public hospitals suffer from a lack of resources and management failures, while the State has supported the development of a lucrative private sector.

Tunisia lifted most of the restrictions it put in place this week in early March, and the country has managed to stem the epidemic, which has left 50 dead and has not resulted in a massive influx into hospitals. Currently, no Covid-19 patient is hospitalized in the country. A few cases are identified every day, most of them returnees through quarantine centers. The country counts this Thursday evening 1,132 confirmed cases for 50 deaths and 1,006 cures.

• In Egypt, Amnesty International denounces “harassment” against healthcare workers

The human rights organization calls on the Egyptian authorities to end their "harassment campaign" against medical personnel, several of whose members have been arrested for criticizing the government's handling of the health crisis linked to the new coronavirus. Under-equipped and poorly prepared, caregivers account for 11% of contamination in Egypt, according to the WHO.

Eight caregivers have been " arbitrarily arrested by the National Security Agency  ", Egypt's main security organ , since March  after criticizing the government on social media, Amnesty said in a statement. Some caregivers say they have been threatened by the security services, as well as by their hierarchy. On June 14, the Egyptian doctors' union had asked the prosecution to release five of its members arrested for criticizing the government, who were accused of "  belonging to a terrorist group  " and of "  threatening the security of the 'State  '. Egypt has 49,219 cases for 1,850 dead and 13,141 healings.

• In Mauritania, teachers from the private sector alert about their situation

Schools have been closed since March 10, as part of measures to fight the coronavirus. The Teachers' Union of the private sector says that they have not received any salary since February. They usually earn 150,000 ouguiyas per month, the equivalent of 350 euros.

Daily life has become difficult, explains Moustapha Mohamed Diop, national union coordinator: “  We have rents to pay, bills to pay for water and electricity. We don't even have enough to buy food. Currently, there are colleagues who are on the street. Why ? because they don't have enough to pay their rent. And the donors, what are they doing ? They take them out of the house.  "

However, according to him, the government has asked all private companies to continue to pay their staff, including private schools. The secretary general of the National Union of Promoters of Private Education in Mauritania, Moctar Aress, explains to RFI that private schools in Mauritania have not received any state subsidy unlike the countries of the sub-region. According to him, the private establishments function thanks to the payment of the tuition fees. Except that the parents of students have suspended these payments since the end of classes in March. This explains why the teachers and the rest of the staff were not paid, said the secretary general.

The country counts this Thursday evening 2,057 cases of Covid-19. The disease caused 93 deaths while 373 people recovered from it.

• "Severe recession" than expected in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Central African Monetary Policy Committee has made its copy. This year it forecasts a 2.4% drop in GDP compared to 1.9% initially anticipated. The inflation rate should reach more than 15% by the end of the year. After the intervention in April of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which provided aid of more than 363 million US dollars, the Congolese state posted a credit balance of 63 million dollars at the end of April then that he only had the foreign currency equivalent of 3 weeks of importing goods and services.

• Congo-Brazzaville: the state is trying to reassure businesses hit by the health crisis

After almost two months of total confinement due to the coronavirus, Congolese companies are having a difficult time. They hope to be able to count on the State which offers banks a guarantee for 25 billion CFA francs in business loans. But Brazzaville's room for maneuver is very limited due to a deep budgetary crisis for several years. The government refutes any liquidity problem in local banks but calls on companies to pay their taxes without constraint.

• In Madagascar, Andry Rajoelina at the bedside of the private sector

The President of the Republic received on Wednesday at the State Palace in Iavoloha, representatives of the private sector. Businesses and industries on the Big Island have been asking for a support plan for several weeks to enable them to face the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The eagerly awaited meeting lasted nearly five hours. Result: discussions and debates but still few concrete measures to believe the representatives of the companies.

"  We are at the stage of discussions but we felt in the speech of the president and the Prime Minister a strong signal for the support to the private sector and more particularly to tourism  ", affirms Patrice Raoull, president of the Confederation of tourism of Madagascar. He evokes some key ideas: facilitating access to credit lines at subsidized rates which will concern all sectors, alleviation or the postponement of certain deadlines for social security contributions, as many elements "  which will allow us to be more motivated to prepare for the revival of the sector  ”. Tourism represents 44,000 direct and 300,000 indirect jobs. It is also one of the top three providers of foreign currency for Madagascar.

Thierry Rajaona, the president of the Groupement des entreprises de Madagascar also felt a government listening but evoked a "  certain gap between what the companies proposed and what the authorities presented  ". If the latter insisted on the long-term recovery, immediate support in this period of crisis is also imperative, he explains: "  these are rather major axes that have been announced and the details remain to be specified. This is worrying since we have been in crisis for three months. "

Sunday, during his intervention on national television, Andry Rajoelina had announced the release of a fund of $ 40 million at the Central Bank to allow small and medium-sized enterprises to make loans at low interest rates. During this meeting, the presidency also reiterated the launch of a "Marshall Plan" of 1,043 billion ariary ($ 270 million) enshrined in the amending finance law and which will be allocated to construction and infrastructure. Discussions should continue in the coming days, particularly with small and medium-sized enterprises and very small enterprises which have not yet been received.

• Zambia loses a third of its mining revenues due to the Covid-19

The industry, the country's largest purveyor of foreign exchange, reported $ 60 to $ 65 million from February to April, compared to $ 90 million expected. Zambia is the second largest copper producer on the continent. This difficult situation for the sector could last a year according to the Zambian Chamber of Mines. The sector is also facing a drop in world copper prices and an increase in costs, following anti-coronavirus protection measures.

The mining company Glencore announced in April that its two Zambian copper production sites were put to sleep. It resumed its activities in May but confirmed its intention to end it definitively at the end of July because of falling prices and a health crisis. According to the Zambian Miners' Union, the decision of the Swiss giant threatens 11,000 jobs in the country.

• Viruses in Africa: “healed” at war against denial and stigmatization

Influenced or anonymous, patients who have recovered from Covid-19 in Africa start another fight after their treatment, against denial of the disease, stigmatization of the patients, ignorance and lack of means.

In Kinshasa, where residents challenge prevention teams with the cry of "  corona eza te!" "(There is no corona, in Lingala) the cartoonist Thembo Kash presents himself as"  a living experience  "and irrefutable proof that"  the disease exists. And I will ask people who still have doubts to be very careful, because I can confirm that I suffered  . ”

"  There is stigma," confirms another side, a healed patient, the journalist Dieunit Kanyinda. My children in the neighborhood were nicknamed "Covid" they were called "corona". This is behavior that pushes people to hide . ” He militates against this tendency in his programs.

In Senegal, the humorist Samba Sine, alias “Kouthia”, also plans to devote “  fifteen programs  ” to raising awareness among the population when he returns to television, expected in two months. The 49-year-old comedian spent 20 days in intensive care. Probably protected by his notoriety, he did not suffer from discrimination. "  People say prayers for good recovery,  " he said, but "  people were running away  " in front of some of his team members, who were also infected.

In South Africa, the African country most affected by the disease, cured patients have started sharing experiences. "  We have weekly sessions from home on (the videoconference app) Teams to talk to our colleagues about the disease and answer questions,  " says Christine, a 28-year-old analyst. While Megan, 35, from Cape Town, launched in March on social networks the account "LivingCoronaPositive", a kind of "Covid-19 patient guide".

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our Coronavirus Info column 

• Our  explanations  :
→  What we know about the mode of contagion
→  Disparities and inequalities facing 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  ”
→ “  Nurses  ' words ”

• 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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