DM Monitoring
SYDNEY: Support delivered from China has helped African countries in the fight against COVID-19, said an Africa policy researcher.
“China has done a good job supplying much-needed medical equipment and expertise to African countries,” policy researcher and analyst Cornelia Tremann from China Africa Advisory, an independent Africa and China-focused advisory firm, told media.
In her article in the Interpreter, published by the Lowy Institute, a think tank based in Sydney, Tremann highlighted that Africa is particularly fragile to the virus, and that the situation there will also affect global containment efforts.
“Even comparatively lower rates of infection can wreak havoc on African countries’ fragile health systems, and could trigger widespread socio-economic or political turmoil,” she wrote in the article. “Since COVID-19 is an extremely infectious disease, no country will be safe from it until we have developed a vaccine. Until then, if we want to contain it within our own borders it will need to be contained in Africa, and African health systems and economies simply do not have the capacity to contain it themselves,” Tremann said.
According to statistics by the World Health Organization, as of Monday there are 14,760 confirmed cases in Africa, with 662 deaths. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, China has sent medical teams to several African countries including Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and Chinese medical experts have exchanged ideas with their African counterparts on the prevention and control of COVID-19 through video conferences.
