Africa’s Panacea To Tame Covid-19

How Africa, as a continent, stood tall in the face of the global ravaging Coronavirus or better still Covid-19 is still a mystery to many. More so to analysts who had predicted doom on the continent owing to its weak health system and the fragile economies that depend largely on the outside world to survive. Very few foresaw a workable response plan against the scourge.
Even if there was no ‘one-fit-all’ approach adopted by the continent, various countries from the onset devised strategies to safe lives and livelihoods. In effect, early interventions played a crucial role in curbing the virus' spread in Africa thereby disproving pundits who had earlier predicted that corpses would be picked on the streets of Africa. Observably, the emphasis on community-driven initiatives, and experience in contact-tracing from fighting diseases like Ebola, helped most African countries to tackle the virus.
African governments introduced a series of measures to tackle the virus as soon as the first cases were reported. Some announced nationwide lockdowns while others opted for less strict measures. Authorities shut down borders, canceled flights and imposed strict entry and quarantine regulations. At least, this helped to contain the spread of the virus especially in 2020 before the even more devastating second wave hit the continent this year. The continent’s youthful population, experts say, equally played in its favour. It is said that most victims of the virus elsewhere were aged people. Life expectancy in most African countries is below sixty years. It must also be said that the continent and its people believed in themselves and plunged into their life-saving natural concoctions head and toes. Added to Africa’s success story was the ability of the international private and public stakeholders, led by the African Union, to plan a successful way out of the crisis by taking strong decisions, including debt relief and innovations in the mobilisation of private sector financing.
Clipping the wings of the virus; notably the first wave, was pleasantly surprising but there is however every reason to remain vigilant. What pushed ‘prophets of doom’ to smell a dead rat for Africa is still there. Health structures have not quit changed and most economies are still being driven by the informal sector; implying a majority of the population lead hand-to-mouth lives and must go out almost da...