Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Botswana has worst Covid-19 infection rate in Africa

Botswana’s Covid-19 which is currently the most infectious in Africa is expected to go from bad to worse on the back of the festive season super spreading.

According to the latest figures from Our World in Data, as at 1st December 2022 Botswana had the highest Covid-19 infection rate in Africa at 15,7 confirmed daily infections per million people.

Botswana and Zimbabwe are the only countries in Africa that have more than 10 daily new confirmed Covid-19 per million people. Zimbabwe comes second after Botswana with 11,3 confirmed daily infections per million people.

Botswana’s daily infection rate is almost three times that of South Africa which is currently at 5,6 confirmed daily infections per million people.

Indications are that the situation is worse than that painted by

official statistics.

A disclaimer by Our World in Data states that, “due to limited testing, the number of confirmed cases is lower than the true number of infections.” The figures which were gleaned from the Johns Hopkins University CSSE COVID-19 Data further reveals that Botswana has recorded the worst Covid-19 cumulative infection in Africa, between March 2020 when the virus was first detected in the country to December 2022. The figures show that Botswana is the only country in Africa with a cumulative infection rate of more than 300 000 infections per 1 million people during the period.

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