W.H.O Predicts Steep Drop in Covid Deaths in Africa in 2022

The World Health Orga­ni­za­tion expects the num­ber of Covid-19 deaths in its Africa region to fall sharply this year, com­pared with 2021, the agency said on Thurs­day. The pre­dic­tion was a hope­ful one for the world’s least vac­ci­nat­ed con­ti­nent, though it reflect­ed a vast under­count­ing of past coro­n­avirus infec­tions and deaths in offi­cial tal­lies. W.H.O.…

South Africa’s latest surge is a possible preview of the pandemic’s next chapter.

Coro­n­avirus cas­es are surg­ing again in South Africa, and pub­lic health experts are mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion, eager to know what’s dri­ving the spike, what it says about immu­ni­ty from pre­vi­ous infec­tions and what its impli­ca­tions are glob­al­ly. South Africa expe­ri­enced a decline in cas­es after hit­ting an Omi­cron-fueled, pan­dem­ic peak in Decem­ber. But in the…

A Door-to-Door Effort to Find Out Who Died Helps Low-Income Countries Aid the Living

Many devel­op­ing coun­tries don’t keep offi­cial death records. A nov­el effort uses “elec­tron­ic autop­sies” to count deaths, and record their cause. FUNKOYA, Sier­ra Leone — Augus­tine Alpha begins gen­tly. “Who lives in this home?” he asks the young man, who has come in from the fields to answer his ques­tions. Your name? Age? Reli­gion? Mar­i­tal status?…