Coronavirus crisis may kill 300,000 Africans - UN body

ADDIS ABABA - 17 April 2020: The coronavirus pandemic could kill 300,000 people in Africa this year, even with assertive government measures to limit social interactions, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

Overcrowded slums with no access to water coupled with fragile health-care systems make Africa especially vulnerable to the disease, the Addis Ababa-based body said in a report on Friday, according to Bloomberg.

Countries across Africa have implemented measures from nationwide lockdowns, in which people are only allowed to leave their homes to buy food and medicine, to suspending schools, prohibiting public gatherings and halting all travel.

The report presents four scenarios and shows that zero interventions -- a worst-case scenario -- would lead to the death of as many as 3.3 million people in a continent with a population of 1.3 billion.