Harboursandport.com: Washington - US billionaire and
software developer Bill Gates has warned that the coronavirus epidemic could
overwhelm the health services of Africa and trigger a pandemic which may lead
to 10 million deaths in the continent.
The Microsoft founder and
philanthropist was speaking at the annual meeting of an American scientific
society in Seattle, Washington, amid growing concerns about the coronavirus
outbreak.
As Gates was speaking, news
broke that the first case of coronavirus had been confirmed on the continent,
as a person in Cairo, Egypt tested positive for the disease.
“This is a huge challenge,”
Gates said. “We’ve 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.”
“This disease, if it’s in
Africa, is more dramatic than if it’s in China,” noting that he was “not trying
to minimize what’s going on in China in any way.”
There are now fears that the
disease could spread to sub-Saharan Africa where it could spark an
uncontrollable outbreak, with health services unable to monitor or control the
virus.
The Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the charitable foundation that he and his wife, Melinda Gates,
established in 2000, recently committed $100 million to fight the
coronavirus.
As of Sunday, the death toll
in mainland China reached 1,770, up by 105 from the previous day, while there
were 2,048 new cases, bringing the total count to 70,548.
Over 500 cases have been
confirmed outside China, mostly of people who travelled from Chinese cities,
with five deaths in Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and France.
Chinese authorities say the
stabilization in the number of new cases is a sign that measures they have taken
to halt the spread of the disease are having an effect. However,
epidemiologists and economists warn optimism that the disease might be under
control is premature.
Chinese leaders already were
struggling to shore up economic growth that slowed to 6.1 percent last year due
to weak consumer demand and a trade war with the US. Some economists, citing
industry surveys and other data, say real growth already was much weaker than
that.
Press TV
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