Youthful population, experience cushioned Africa from pandemic severity_ WHO

Africa has not been hit as hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as other continents because of its young population and experience in fighting other infectious diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom.

Tedros made the remarks in a video message at the Africa Health Agenda International Conference 2021.

“Our continent’s relatively young population means Africa has not seen the same scale of severe disease and death as other regions with older populations,” said the WHO chief.

“Africa has also benefited from its long experience in applying basic public health tools to prevent and respond to outbreaks of infectious disease.”

Tedros noted that the current distribution of vaccines will help bring the pandemic under control.

He revealed that around 14 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to 19 countries in Africa through the WHO’s COVAX initiative, with more countries expected to receive doses this week.

By Monday, the continent had reported 3,966,355 infections with 105,767 deaths, according to the latest tally by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).