The EconomistMarch 28th 2020 491“I
n the townshippeople are not wor-
ried at all,” says Lesedi Kgasago, a stu-
dent from Soweto, Johannesburg. Among
his friends “corona” is seen either as some-
thing that afflicts white people or a fiction.
When life is a struggle it is hard to worry
about a threat you cannot see.
Besides, asks Mr Kgasago, what can So-
wetans do about it? “Self-isolation is just
not practical in the ’hood.” Most of the
township is poor and crowded. Just 55% of
households have piped water. “There is a
mentality of if we die, we die, but we’re go-
ing to have a good time,” he says.
That may now be more difficult. On
March 23rd Cyril Ramaphosa, South Afri-
ca’s president, announced a nationwide
lockdown. The number of recorded cases
in the country is the highest in Africa, at
709 as of March 25th. The rate of increase is
similar to that of Italy at the same stage.
Other countries in Africa could be just
days behind. Most of its 54 states have con-firmed infections. Some hope that hot and
humid weather may slow the spread of the
virus. But the evidence for that is inconclu-
sive and any effect will be “modest”, reck-
ons Marc Lipsitch of Harvard University.
“We don’t know what it will do in Africa,”
notes David Heymann of the London
School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. But
there is no reason to think it would be dif-
ferent from anywhere else, he says.
It could be worse. Most rich countries
have struggled to respond to the outbreak.
African ones have fewer medics and less
kit. Social distancing is far harder in over-
crowded slums. Lockdowns could increase
poverty and hunger. Nor do most African
countries have the money to tide peopleand companies over.
Africa has some advantages. It is a
young continent facing a virus that mainly
kills the old. There are an estimated 47m
Africans over 65 and 6m over 80, out of a
population of 1.3bn. In Europe the figures
are 143m and 40m out of 750m people.
Africa has also had more time to pre-
pare. Governments have closed borders
and restricted air travel. Many have banned
large gatherings. The vast majority of chil-
dren are no longer at school. These steps
have been taken sooner in the course of the
disease than elsewhere. Uganda, for in-
stance, closed schools before it had any
confirmed infections. South Africa’s lock-
down was announced before Britain’s,
though Britain had more than 16 times as
many known cases. Sierra Leone has de-
clared a 12-month state of emergency de-
spite not having a single confirmed case.
Advance warning has also allowed Afri-
ca to boost testing capacity. Today more
than 40 countries can test for covid-19, up
from just Senegal and South Africa in early
February. Although they have many fewer
testing kits than richer countries do, more
are on the way. Jack Ma, the founder of Ali-
baba and perhaps China’s richest man, has
donated 20,000 testing kits, 100,000
masks and 1,000 protective suits to each
African country.
Experience in dealing with other infec-Coronavirus in AfricaNot immune
ADDIS ABABA, GOMA, JOHANNESBURG AND KAMPALA
Africa is woefully ill-equipped to cope with covid-19Middle East & Africa
51 Arab states clamp down
52 The virus reaches GazaAlso in this section