The regional director for Africa of the World Health Organization (WHO), Matshidiso Moeti, said today that the main concern is no longer covid-19, but the cholera outbreak, which is affecting 10 African countries.

"The threat of the covid-19 pandemic is diminishing, we are now more concerned about cholera, which has already spread to 10 countries in Africa, and puts extreme pressure on the limited vaccines that exist worldwide," said Moeti, during a virtual press conference from Brazzaville, quoted by Lusa.

In total, in the first three weeks of January, 20,552 new cases of covid-19 were recorded on the continent, which represents a drop of 97% compared to the figure recorded in the first three weeks of last year, despite an increase in numbers in South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia, Moeti pointed out, admitting that although the figures may be higher due to low testing rates, the important thing is that the number of hospitalizations and the number of deaths have fallen to 88, which compares with the 9,096 recorded in the same period of 2022.

"For the first time since Covid-19 shook our lives, January is not synonymous with an outbreak, and Africa is embarking on the fourth year of the pandemic with the hope of overcoming the emergency response mode and living with the virus in this new normal," he said.

At the press conference, the WHO also defended the need to include the covid-19 vaccine in the normal vaccination plan for African countries.

Cholera is a disease that causes severe diarrhea, is treatable, but can cause death from dehydration if not promptly combated - and is caused largely by eating food and water contaminated by poor sanitation.

The cholera epidemic that has been underway since March 2022 in Malawi has killed more than 1,000 people, according to the government, and has already caused the deaths of 16 people in Mozambique.

"We have a cumulative 1,376 cases of cholera and 16 deaths, which correspond to a lethality rate of 1.2%," said Domingos Guiole, from the public health surveillance department in Misau, quoted on January 16 by private television STV, which led the President of the Republic himself, Filipe Nyusi, to advocate "redoubling hygiene precautions".