Scientists can’t explain the puzzling coronavirus outbreak in Africa

[Chris Smith]

• The spread of the novel coronavirus remains high across the world, except for in Africa.
• Africa is doing better than every other continent, both when it comes to the number of cases and the number of deaths.
• Scientists can't explain why the region hasn't seen massive outbreaks like other continents, but they do have one theory that might explain the evolution of the local coronavirus outbreak.
• Previous infections with human coronaviruses that cause the common cold might have provided additional protection against COVID-19 to African nations compared to other countries. The hypothesis has yet to be verified with scientific data.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 26.35 million people, with just four countries accounting for over 15 million cases. They are America, Brazil, India, and Russia -- the same four that have been at the top for months. The US surprised the world when it rose to the top spot in multiple COVID-19 statistics, both for the total number of confirmed cases and the number of deaths. Since then, no other country has surpassed America.

But scientists who are studying the pandemic have also identified another surprise of the pandemic. Some expected the African continent to be affected most heavily by the virus, but that wasn't the case. South Africa stands out when it comes to the number of total cases, with nearly 631,000 infections. But fewer than 15,000 people have died of COVID-19. These figures are puzzling scientists looking to understand how the virus behaves and how it can be beaten.

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Scientists can’t explain the puzzling coronavirus outbreak in Africa originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 3 Sep 2020 at 19:36:38 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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