The past week marks the third month since the deadly disease had footholds in our country. Within this short period, the pandemic has impacted Ethiopians way of life in a more profound and diverse way than many other nations. Overflowing above the social and economic domain, the consequence of the pandemic has spilled over the political arena. As if the preexisting agendas of the political debate are not enough, the corona crisis has triggered the political temperature to soar by bringing unprecedented challenges to the Ethiopian leadership, who are handling the situation with a cool head and cautious step.
Even in such times of depression and fear like the present, there will always be hilarious things and crazy actions that gave us the lol [ laugh out loud] moments, or at least put a smile on our sad apprehensive face. Last week, we heard the Tanzanian President has declared his country free of coronavirus, while in fact hundreds of active cases and dozens of case fatalities are reported in that eastern African nation. The president credited the prayers of citizens for the “triumph” over the pandemic. “The corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God.”
He reportedly said. How could a sane mind possibly believe that an African nation could declare victory over the pandemic which is still spreading and yet achieved its peak on the continent level? When I first got the news, I thought it was a fake one. I tried to check it out by consulting various well-reputed media. Eventually, I confirmed that the President has indeed made the crazy statement. The Tanzanian President has reminded me of the former Gambian president who claims to have the curing potion for HIV/AIDS. Even the most maverick African leaders of the past like Qaddafi, Mugabe, Idi Amin, or Mobutu would not dare to make such a dangerous joke on the corona pandemic that is claiming thousands of lives around the world every day.
Notwithstanding the wishful thinking of the Tanzanian president, WHO’s Africa regional director said last week that the pandemic was spreading in Africa beyond capital cities and that a lack of tests and other supplies was hampering responses. She said that Africa had had some 200,000 cases and 5,000 deaths, with 10 countries accounting for 75% of the cases. “Even though Africa accounts for less than 3% of the global total, it’s clear that the pandemic is accelerating in Africa, new cases were likely to continue increasing for the foreseeable future,” she warned.
The last situations in our country confirms with the above-mentioned description of the state of the pandemic in Africa by the WHO Regional Director. Considering the midweek [Wednesdays] as the margin line, we see that the gradient in the coronavirus curve during the past week has been 68.6%. In other words, the number of new cases recorded in the past week is far larger than the week before by over 35%. The tally of new cases recorded in the past week only was the largest ever recorded, 1,020. The corresponding figure for the week before was 755.
What makes the past week, the worst of all we have been through is that it was the deadliest week so far of the pandemic in Ethiopia. The number of fatalities’ recorded with in the past week [18]was more than that of the previous 12 weeks put together,[17]. Looking ahead, one can predict that the rise in the number of fatalities is likely to accelerate given the dramatic spike of cases in critical condition by over 5 fivefold in just a week.
Furthermore, the increment of active cases recorded in the past week [849] has grown by about 29% compared to the week before. The huge influx of returnee citizens has continued to be an additional challenge and stress to the country’s COVID-19 response system. Donor agencies and countries are expected to step up their role in filling the gaps in the required resources to ensure the containment of the pandemic within the shortest time possible.
As of last Thursday, Ethiopia has recorded the second largest number of active cases compared to its neighbors, next to Sudan. However, interims of the death toll, Ethiopia recorded fewer case fatalities than Sudan, Kenya, and Somalia. The more logical parameter, the COVID death per million population figure, shows that Ethiopia has the least number next to Eritrea, the nation that never reported a single case fatality, and currently with only 2 active cases. Too good to be true, did you say? Well, maybe. Ethiopia’s test coverage per million of its population has shown remarkable improvement. During the past week, it has risen to 1,439. The corresponding figure for the period three weeks ago was only 606. This attests to the government’s and other stakeholders’ successful efforts in increasing the country’s test coverage to the appropriate level which is yet to be attained. The country’s test coverage is still lagging behind the neighboring Kenya, which reached the figure of 1,979 per million of the population.
The Ethiopian herald June 14,2020
BY SOLOMON WASSIHUN
