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The COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the world and Africa is not being spared. Since the first confirmed case was found in Egypt in mid-February, the coronavirus has spread to 52 out of the 54 African countries with more than 10,000 infections.
The wealthy countries in the West are staggering under the strain caused by the outbreak. With densely populated markets and housing, poor access to clean water and run-down health infrastructure, Africa, the least developed continent, is even more vulnerable to the raging pandemic.
The international community must move fast to support Africa and keep it from becoming the next "epicenter" of the pandemic, since any failure to do so would deliver a heavy blow to the global battle against the pathogen.
For decades, Africa has been plagued by malaria, AIDS as well as tuberculosis and has yet to recover from two rounds of Ebola virus outbreak in 2014 and 2018. Now, it faces serious challenges -- shortage of test kits, insufficient protective materials and isolation wards, and poor medical facilities and services.
What is worse, inevitable prevention measures taken by many African countries, like city lockdowns, curfews and suspensions of international flights, have incurred enormous economic costs and threatened to cause unimaginable humanitarian disasters.
In the words of John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the COVID-19 pandemic "is an existential threat" to the continent with a population of 1.3 billion.
During the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit last month, major economies in the world have reached a consensus that consolidating Africa's health defense is a key for the resilience of global health.
The group must now take concrete actions to implement their consensus, and help developing and least developed countries, notably those in Africa, to cope with the daunting challenge.
China has been doing what it can to help African countries. It has organized several video conferences to share its experience in fighting the outbreak with African countries. Chinese enterprises and other entities have also assisted Africa by donating millions of masks and test kits to African countries. What's more, China has helped renovate several designated COVID-19 treatment hospitals in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Senegal for free.
No country or continent should be left ignored in the global fight against the coronavirus. As the clock ticks, the world should move faster to help its least prepared regions to survive the unprecedented health crisis.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
