Why Africa And Russia Aren’t Hit By Coronavirus
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Roshan Amiri
- . March 21, 2020
- . Update: March 21, 2020 12:29 pm
Ever wondered why are there less cases of coronavirus spread in Russia and Africa? There is a certain advantage of these countries right now, mainly because they are not actively being used for trade, commerce or travel. Most countries where the virus spread quickly have shown an active travel circuit between China and themselves.
The virus originated from the Wuhan market, in Wuhan city, China and rapidly travelled outside the country through either natives or foreign traveler going back to own country. The worst hit was Italy and then the US, UK and rest of Europe.
But Africa and its various countries have not reported too many cases. The same has been the good fate of Russia as well. As soon as the pandemic was understood in China, travel restrictions were put in place. This was another reason why the pandemic did not hit Russia and Africa that much. We are still in the first two stages of the pandemic. There might be a chance that the virus does actually touch each and every part of the world, sparing no continent.
Only strong immunity is being said to be the best medicine to combat the virus, for which there is no cure in sight, atleast till the beginning of 2021.
Some other nations that do have extensive trade and travel routes to China, response time to combat the spread was commendable. This includes Japan, Singapore and also India. What has worked best to combat the virus, is extensive border screening, control and surveillance. Strangely, most reported cases have come from the north of the tropic of cancer.
There is also a possibility that the broad range of tropical infectious diseases has masked the identification of COVID-19 cases that often present with mild, non-specific symptoms. Another factor being taken is that the virus does not spread well in hot and humid climates. On the flipside, low numbers could also mean that screening actually isn’t being done properly and actually there is masked widespread virus already within these countries.
