WHO issues new warning of coronavirus spread among West African countries

The World Health Organization on Thursday issued a new warning of the potential devastation that could be caused by the community spread of coronavirus in most West African countries.

At least 8,058 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the 16 West African nations — which include Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, among others — according to the WHO’s count. There have been at least 23,800 reported cases among sub-saharan African countries, and 900 deaths.

“We are very concerned about West Africa where we are seeing some community spread, in a significant number of countries compared with others,” Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s Africa region director, said during a news conference. She stopped short of identifying individual countries.

Several West African countries have declared a state of emergency and have shut down schools, and travel in an effort to reduce the spread. But others eye lifting some gathering restrictions to mitigate implications on their country’s economy.

The latest warning comes amid fears that the global economic impacts from the coronavirus outbreak could push up to a half a billion more people into poverty around the world and could lead to widespread famine.

“When a government decides not to lockdown a city, they need to be aware that there would be consequences in terms of the spread of the virus,” Ms. Moeti warned.

“We hope that these decisions are made having taken into account overall, the balance between enabling economies to grow and stopping the spread of a pandemic that can have profound long-term impact on the economy.”