Skip to main content

Coronavirus Deaths In Africa Not As High As Predicted: Bill Gates


Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft corporation has said he does not understand why coronavirus numbers have not been as high as predicted in Africa.

Recall that Gates and his wife, Melinda, had in more than one occasion, warned that there will be dead bodies all over the streets of Africa if the world does not act fast enough.

Melinda said her heart was in Africa, adding that she is worried that the continent might not be able to handle the devastating effect of the virus.

But in his end of the year note, Bill said he was happy his prediction about Africa has not happened, “One thing I’m happy to have been wrong about—at least, I hope I was wrong—is my fear that Covid-19 would run rampant in low-income countries. So far, this hasn’t been true,” he wrote.

In most of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, case rates and death rates remain much lower than in the U.S. or Europe and on par with New Zealand, which has received so much attention for its handling of the virus.

“The hardest-hit country on the continent is South Africa—but even there, the case rate is 40 percent lower than in the US, and the death rate is nearly 50 percent lower.

“We don’t have enough data yet to understand why the numbers aren’t as high as I worried they would get — but gave probable reasons Africa was not as affected as expected.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria is currently fighting the second wave of the coronavirus.

The Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 had last week announced a second wave of the dreaded virus.

The Federal Government on Tuesday directed civil servants from grade level 12 and below to stay at home.

They are to remain at home for five weeks following the second wave of the Covid-19 disease in Nigeria.

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, on Friday stated that Covid-19 related deaths now stand at 1,246.

Nigeria currently has a total of 82,747 confirmed cases in the country.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EndSARS: Protesters In New York Want SARS Operatives Sacked

 Hundreds of young anti-SARS protesters on Sunday stormed the Nigeria House in New York demanding transparency in the disbandment of the police unit back home. The protesters said operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad found wanting should be sacked and not redeployed. Among them was Stephen “Papi” Ojo, the artist, model, and choreographer who stole the show as the ‘blue-guy’ in Beyoncé’s “Already” music video. The protest started shortly after the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, announced the dissolution of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Adamu also announced plans for a new arrangement to address anticipated policing gaps following the disbandment, and the constitution of an investigative team to probe the alleged cases of rights violations, among others. But the protesters, who bore placards with different inscriptions including, “We no want audio ban”, said they were not buying it. They argued that previous commitments announced by the force to change...

Open grazing ban in South irreversible, Akeredolu replies Malami

  The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has tackled the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Shehu Malami, for faulting the ban placed on open grazing in the Southern part of the country. The Southern Governors had at a meeting in Asaba last week banned open grazing and asked the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to address the nation over the increasing rate of insecurity in the country. However, Malami who appeared as a guest on Channels Television on Wednesday faulted the ban, arguing that the governor had no right to do that. Akeredolu, who is the Chairman of Southern Governors’ Forum, spoke in a statement he personally signed on Thursday, titled, ‘ Our decision is irreversible and will be enforced ’. He asked the AGF to challenge the governor’s position on open grazing in court, adding that Malami’s comments were “ unfortunate and wicked ”. Part of the statement read, “I have just read the press statement credited to the Attorney...

Biden Announces Purchase Of 200M Vaccine Doses

  President Joe Biden announced a series of measures on Tuesday aimed at ramping up coronavirus vaccine allocation and distribution, including the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses and increased distribution to states by millions of doses next week. With those additional doses, Biden said there would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans -- nearly the entire US population -- by the end of summer or early fall. He described efforts to combat Covid-19 as a "wartime undertaking." We now have a national strategy to beat Covid-19. It's comprehensive. It's based on science, not politics. It's based on truth, not denial, and it is detailed," he said. As part of the new efforts announced Tuesday, the US will buy 100 million more doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 100 million more from Moderna -- the two-dose vaccines that have been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer and Moderna are working to step up p...