Eswatini among 22 African countries with above 40% COVID-19 recoveries

Mbabane: Debatably, there is something good being done by the country’s health workers on the ground, especially the front liners in the fight against the deadly COVID-19 as the recorded number of recoveries has catapulted Eswatini into the bracket of countries in the African continent that have surpassed the 40 percent recovery mark.

As of Tuesday, Eswatini had recorded nine new recoveries, taking the total figure to 87 out of the 208 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

According to African Union’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), as of 9 am, 19 May 2020, a total of 88 172 COVID-19 cases and 2 834 (3 percent) deaths have been reported in 54 African countries. This was about 2 percent of all cases reported globally.

Comparatively, Eswatini is among 22 countries that have reached or have surpassed the 40 percent mark. When ranking all the 54 countries in terms the number of recoveries as a percentage of the confirmed cases, Eswatini was ranked 22th with 41.82 recoveries (as of Tuesday).

Conspicuously, there are two countries that have so far recorded 100 percent recoveries in the region and those are Eritrea and Seychelles.

The third rank is occupied by Africa’s fastest growing economy, Mauritius with 96.90 percent recoveries. Other countries with high recovery rates are Burrkina Faso with 81.90 percent which is  ranked 4^th and Namibia (81.25 percent recoveries), Tunisia (78.52 percent), Rwanda (68.35 percent), Botswana (68.0 percent recoveries), Djibouti (67 percent recoveries), Mali (58.58 percent recoveries), Niger (56.32 percent recoveries), Gambia (54.16 percent), Libya(53.84 percent recoveries), Liberia (53.71 percent recoveries), and Algeria with 50.34 percent recoveries, ranked 5^th, 6^th,7^th, 8^th,9^th,10^th,11^th, 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, 15^th respectively out of 54 countries. 

Cote d’ Ivoire (49.07 percent recoveries, Burundi (47.0 percent recoveries), Guinea (45.17 percent recoveries), South Africa (44.41 percent recoveries), Cameroon (44.40 percent recoveries) and Senegal (42.29 percent recoveries were ranked 16^th, 17^th,18^th,19^th,20^th, 21^st respectively.

Worth mentioning is that almost all the SACU member states (Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini and South Africa) are within the over 40 percent recoveries bracket except for Lesotho which is yet to record a recovery. Lesotho has recorded one confirmed case of COVID-19 and is the only country in the world in that status.

Countries with recoveries below 10 percent are nine and those are Sudan (9.5 percent), Mauritania (7.40 percent), Central African Republic (4.90 percent), Guinea-Bissau (3.46 percent), Equatorial Guinea (2.4 percent), Sao Tome & Principe (1.70 percent), South Sudan (1.40 percent), Morocco (0.08 percent) and Lesotho (0.0 percent).

UN secretary general António Guterres said that the developed world could learn lessons from African countries’ preventative measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus. There have been fewer than 3 000 Covid-19 deaths from 88 000 cases of the disease registered throughout the African continent.  

Table shows how countries fared in COVID-19 recoveries as of Tuesday 

SOURCE: AFRICAN UNION’s CENTRE FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (AFRICA CDC)

NB: FIGURES WERE CORRECT AS AT TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020