India's Covid-19 emergency is wake-up call to Africa — AU health chief

African nations generally do not have sufficient numbers of healthcare workers, hospital beds, oxygen supplies, and the continent of 1.3 billion would be even more overwhelmed than India if cases surged in a similar way, said John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nkengasong urged Africans to wear masks and avoid large gatherings, warning: “We cannot and should not find ourselves in scenario because of the very fragile nature of our health systems.” India, with 1.35 billion people, has a similar population size to the African continent, yet Africa has even weaker health systems, and unlike India does not manufacture significant quantities of drugs or vaccines, he added.

The bulk of the vaccines supplied so far to Africa via the global vaccine-sharing facility Covax have been AstraZeneca shots manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. India suspended its exports of the shot in March to cope with rising domestic demand.

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