ADDIS ABABA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The strong societal bond in Africa could negatively affect ongoing continental and national efforts against the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Africa, an Ethiopian scholar warns.
"There are several factors unique to the continent that could make it difficult to reduce the rate of infections, and make the pandemic more deadly for Africa," Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, who served as an economic advisor to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic's late entry into the African continent, the highly contagious disease is rapidly spreading across the continent of 1.3 billion people, with 52 countries having reported confirmed cases.
Latest figures from the Africa CDC also show that Africa's confirmed COVID-19 cases have surpassed the 10,000 mark as the number of positive cases reached 10,252, while the death toll also rose to nearly 500.
Noting the "near-impossibility of social distancing in many African societies as most African communities harbor strong social culture built around extended family ties," Costantinos also argued that the strong social bond exhibited by African societies could further exacerbate the spread of the virus, and should be "cautiously considered as a daunting challenge" in containing COVID-19 in Africa.
"In many cases across Africa, children are taken care of by grandparents. Much of the urban population lives in informal settlements, where it is impossible to distance yourself from your neighbors," the expert said, highlighting the extent of the challenge.
Costantinos, noting the burgeoning number of conflict, poverty and natural disasters affected refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Africa, also stressed that the "fragile condition of refugees and IDPs is further complicating the fight against COVID-19 in Africa."
He also said that "African countries, equipped with nearly broken public-health systems, deprived public-health sectors and a very small number of specialized hospitals, have little capability for identification, testing, confirmation, isolation and treatment of those people infected."
Costantinos, also professor of public policy at the Addis Ababa University in the Ethiopian capital, also argued that Ethiopia - Africa's second most populous nation with over 107 million people - "faces a greater and more dangerous challenge, given that disrupting daily economic life would threaten fragile livelihoods for millions of Ethiopians."
The expert, however, underscored the crucial significance of replicating the positive experience of countries that were able to reduce the spread of the virus by limiting public gatherings and enforcing social distancing measures.
"As China's cases dwindle, Beijing has been recently striving to take the lead against the coronavirus crisis," Costantinos said, as he emphasized that both the Chinese government and multinational Chinese enterprises have in recent weeks continued to send shipments of medical supplies to hard-hit countries across Africa and the rest of the world.
"China makes massive donation of medical supplies to fight coronavirus in Africa. Ethiopia started distributing China's donations of medical supplies to other African states," Costantinos said, referring to the recent medical supplies donation provided to African countries by the Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations.
The foundations had announced their commitment to donating 100,000 medical masks, 20,000 test kits and 1,000 protective suits and face shields to each of the 54 nations on the African continent.
Meanwhile, more of China's medical supplies for 18 African countries have arrived in Ghana on April 6 to help them fight against COVID-19. The supplies are scheduled to be delivered to the other 17 countries within a few days.
