The World Health Organization (WHO) noted on Thursday that Africa’s longest-running decline in Covid-19 infections since the beginning of the pandemic and has urged countries to remain vigilant and maintain surveillance measures, including genomic surveillance, to swiftly detect circulating Covid-19 variants.

Recorded weekly cases have fallen in the past 16 weeks, while deaths have dropped for the last eight.

Infections, mostly owing to the Omicron-driven fourth pandemic wave, have fallen from a peak of over 308 000 cases weekly at the start of the year to less than 20 000 in the week ending April 10, 2022.

Over the past week, around 18 000 cases and 239 deaths were recorded, a decline of 29% and 37% respectively compared with the week before.

WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti explained that this low level of infection has not been seen since April 2020 in the early stages of the pandemic in Africa.

Africa’s previous longest decline in Covid-19 infections was between August 1 and October 10, 2021.

Moeti said that, currently, no country is witnessing Covid-19 resurgence. WHO considers a country in resurgence when it records a 20% increase in cases in at least two consecutive weeks and a recorded week-on-week rise 30% or higher than the highest weekly infection peak previously reached.

She said that with the virus still circulating, the risk of new and potentially more deadly variants emerging remains, and the pandemic control measures are pivotal to effective response to a surge in infections.

WHO experts are currently working with scientists and researchers in Botswana and South Africa to deepen analysis of Covid-19 sub-lineages which have so far been identified in four people in Botswana and twenty-three in South Africa.

The BA.4 and BA.5 identified in the two southern African countries have also been confirmed in Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Currently there is no significant epidemiological difference observed between the new sub-lineages and known sub-lineages of the Omicron variant, which include BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3 sub-lineages.