Warning of a devastating wave of new strains of corona threatening rich countries as a result of ignoring the virus in Africa

The rich and advanced industrialized countries were the most affected by the pandemic of the emerging Corona virus in its first wave, which started in March 2020, in Italy, which was suffering the most from the human losses of the pandemic, and in other European countries or the United States, which was the most suffering country in the world, both in terms of deaths Or injuries, and Britain, which has become Europe's longest-suffering country from the pandemic.

Now, nearly 15 months after the start of the global pandemic, rich countries have begun discussing post-pandemic issues, such as easing restrictions on movement and economic activities, vaccination programs and the return of life to normal.

On the other hand, most of the countries of the African continent have now fallen into the grip of the third wave of the pandemic and are preparing for the fourth and possibly the fifth wave.

With the spread of the most dangerous mutated strain Delta, on the continent that is least vaccinated against the Corona virus in the world, the number of infections is increasing, exceeding the capacity of hospitals, and the number of deaths is rising.

While there is little hope of vaccinating large numbers of the African population in the coming months, due to the rich countries continuing to acquire most of the production of anti-virus vaccines, epidemiologists expect a new wave of deaths caused by the Corona virus to start before the end of this year.

And in an investigation published by Bloomberg News Agency, the head of the agency’s office in South Africa, Anthony Swasin, said that the spread of the new mutated strain in Africa, carries a great risk of the emergence of new strains resistant to the currently available vaccines, which threatens not only Africa, but all countries of the world.

The director of the Cosby Institute for Genetic Sequencing Research in South Africa, Tulio de Oliveira, says, "The third wave (of the Corona pandemic) will be a disaster because in South Africa and the continent of Africa as a whole we do not get the vaccines that we desperately need. If we do not get the vaccines, within the next few months. We will face the risk of another devastating wave of infection, not only in the number of infections, but also in the number of deaths."

According to the estimates of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Infection Prevention, only 1.1% of Africa's population of about 1.1 billion people have received the vaccination, compared to the vaccination of 50% of the US population and the vaccination of all targeted residents of Britain.

Of the 3 billion doses of Corona vaccines distributed worldwide, only 50 million doses were distributed to Africa.

The effects of this contrast are becoming clear.

In Africa, the number of infections doubles every three weeks, and it is on the verge of exceeding its worst week in the pandemic.

Last Friday, the number of new infections in South Africa reached a record level.

Several cities from Johannesburg in South Africa to Kampala in Uganda have had to impose closures and the number of patients is severely outnumbered by the number of intensive care units.

In poorer countries in Africa, patients die from lack of oxygen and health care workers, with one nurse for every 40 patients.

Coffin makers and florists in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, say they are struggling to keep up with the increasing demand for their services due to the increasing number of funerals.

Zambian social activist Laura Miti says that one of her colleagues died of Corona, after spending some time in the hospital, where many patients died due to power outages in the oxygen supply units.

She added that the shortage in the number of medical personnel also had an impact on the increase in the number of deaths.

Ms. Mette said the nursing staff suffer from enormous work pressure and frustration, and "there are not enough of them".

According to the Africa Center for Disease Control, Africa has recorded about 5.4 million confirmed infections and about 141,000 deaths due to Corona, since the start of the pandemic.

But estimates indicate that the actual unrecorded numbers are much higher, with only 176,000 deaths in South Africa.

"The speed and scale of the third wave of the Corona pandemic in Africa is something we have not seen before," said Matshidiso Moeti, Director of the Africa Department of the World Health Organization.

Now, rich countries still control the world's vaccine supply, buying more than they need.

While the Kovacs Global Initiative aims to provide vaccines to all countries of the world, we will distribute about 1.8 billion doses to 90 poor countries in the world by early 2022, but it has sent only 91 million doses so far.

In India, from which most of the Kovacs Initiative supplies came, it has stopped exporting doses to deal with its pandemic.

Finally, Richard Mihigo, Director of the Immunization and Vaccine Development Program in the Africa Office of the World Health Organization, says, "Africa does not wait for vaccines from the world as charity. It represents an opportunity for the international community to prevent the emergence of new, faster-transmitting strains of the virus, and restores all efforts, even efforts made by rich countries to contain the pandemic to ground zero.

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