10 million people may die from coronavirus in Africa – Bill Gates
Microsoft founder and billionaire has mentioned the possibility of coronavirus hitting harder in Africa and warned that the coronavirus epidemic could trigger a pandemic which may lead to 10 million deaths in the continent.
He stated this while speaking at the annual meeting of an American scientific society n Seattle, Washington after news came up that the first coronavirus case has been confirmed in Africa.
“This is a huge challenge. We have always known that the potential for either a naturally caused or intentionally caused pandemic is one of the few things that could disrupt health systems, economies and cause more than 10 million excess deaths,” he said.
“This disease, if it is in Africa, is more dramatic than if it is in China,” noting that he was “not trying to minimize what’s going on in China anyway,” he added.
With Africa’s health service unable to monitor and control the virus, there are fears that the disease could spread to sub – Saharan Africa where it could spark an uncontrollable outbreak.
China has designated dead nurses and doctors as ‘martyrs’ after Liu Zhiming, a Neurosurgeon and the Director of the Wuchang hospital in Wuhan died of the virus.
The coronavirus death toll has reached 2,004 people while there are about cases 74,185 confirmed cases. However, China’s health commission said more than 12,500 patients have recovered and been discharged home since the outbreak began in December, 2019.
