Many thought Africa would become the next high-risk area, but when COVID-19 eventually arrived on the continent, most of the dire predictions were way off.
Some point to Africa's relative youth: While nearly 95% of COVID-19 deaths in Europe were people over 60, Africa's median age is only 19, and 60% of the continent is under 25.
We also know that Africa CDC created its COVID-19 task force on February 5 , before the continent had a single case.
We know that Rwanda became the first African nation to lock down on March 21st and that many other African countries soon followed: South Africa implemented its comprehensive lockdown when it had only 400 cases and two fatalities.
It's widely agreed that South Africa's strict lockdown bought critical time to prepare health systems and flattened the COVID-19 curve.
