Meanwhile, more than 300,000 people in Africa could lose their lives due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has revealed.
The report stated: “The pandemic could slow down the continent’s economic growth from 3.2 per cent to 1.8 per cent in a best-case scenario, pushing close to 27 million people into extreme poverty.
“Africa’s fragile health systems could see additional costs being imposed on them because of the growing crisis that has to-date, resulted in over 16,000 infected Africans and claimed over 800 lives at the time of the report’s launch.’’
UN Under-Secretary-General and UNECA executive secretary, Vera Songwe, said $100 billion is needed to “urgently provide fiscal space to all countries to help address the immediate safety net needs of the populations’’.
She said Africa is particularly susceptible because 56 per cent of its urban population is concentrated in slums or informal dwellings and only 34 per cent of African households have access to basic hand washing facilities.
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