During the WHO Africa Media Leader Briefing on COVID-19 from the World Economic Forum on Thursday, April 9, 2020, the WHO addressed Pulse Ghana’s question via a video call concerning recovery rates of coronavirus cases in Africa.
Responding to the question, Dr Matshidiso Moeti who is the World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa stated the recovery rate is now approximately 9.4 percent explaining some factors may have resulted in lower rates than other countries outside of Africa.
She mentioned underlying medical conditions on the continent and the capacity of health care centres as contributing factors but also indicated more data will be needed for the calculation as cases are also relatively limited in most African countries.
READ MORE: “People run away when they see us” – Relative of Coronavirus patient laments
“We have observed that the recovery rate in Africa is around 9.4 percent,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti said in response to Pulse Ghana’s question at the WHO Africa Media Leader Briefing on COVID-19 from the World Economic Forum on Thursday.
“I think this is lower that some of the recovery rates in some of the other regions in Asia and European countries.
"Up to now the number of countries where there have been cases is relatively limited in Africa. I think we can collect more data as we see the outbreak unfold in more countries to be able to calculate this better.
“We do know that there are people in our regions with pre existing conditions, the health care settings of African countries are very much challenged to be up to the mark so this is a challenge that we would continue to look at.”
Out of the 54 African countries, only two countries namely Lesotho and Comoros had not recorded cases of Coronavirus COVID-19 disease at the time of the briefing on Thursday.
Ghana’s case count as at Thursday, April 9, 2020 was 313. Greater Accra had the most cases with 274, Ashanti Region with 25, Northern Region with 10, Upper West Region, Upper East Region, Eastern Region and the Central Region with one case each.