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Review
. 2020 Dec;9(1):1300-1308.
doi: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1775132.

COVID-19 pandemic - an African perspective

Shabir Ahmad Lone  1 , Aijaz Ahmad  1   2
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 pandemic - an African perspective

Shabir Ahmad Lone et al. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

The recently emerged novel coronavirus, "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)", caused a highly contagious disease called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The virus was first reported from Wuhan city in China in December, 2019, which in less than three months spread throughout the globe and was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th of March, 2020. So far, the ongoing pandemic severely damaged the world's most developed countries and is becoming a major threat for low- and middle-income countries. The poorest continent, Africa with the most vulnerable populations to infectious diseases, is predicted to be significantly affected by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, in this review we collected and summarized the currently available literature on the epidemiology, etiology, vulnerability, preparedness and economic impact of COVID-19 in Africa, which could be useful and provide necessary information on ongoing COVID-19 pandemics in the continent. We also briefly summarized the concomitance of the COVID-19 pandemic and global warming.

Keywords: Africa; COVID-19; Epidemiology; Global warming; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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