Coronavirus could kill up to 1,90,000 people in Africa, says WHO

The novel coronavirus could kill as many as 1,90,000 people in Africa during the first year of the pandemic if containment measures fail, the World Health Organisation has warned.

The WHO on Thursday predicted that between 29 million to 44 million Africans could be infected in the first year of the pandemic.

Covid-19 likely will smoulder in transmission hotspots, Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, said in a statement.

As many as 5.5 million of the infected people could require hospital treatment. This number stands to overwhelm the medical capacity of most places on the continent.

A survey has earlier found an average of nine intensive care unit beds per 1 million people in 47 African countries.