Malawi

Malawi is now swept by a new, fast-spreading wave of COVID-19 that is quickly overwhelming the healthcare system. This is happening after being relatively spared in 2020. Cumulatively, Malawi has registered 27,195 cases as of 7th February 2021. Out of which more than 45 percent of the cases were recorded in January 2021.  In the first few weeks of January 2021, the number of people confirmed with the disease has doubled every four to five days. According to Johns Hopkins University data, it took less than 21 days for COVID-19 deaths to double in 5 African countries - Malawi, Botswana, Comoros Islands, Lesotho and Zimbabwe placing them among the top 5 countries globally where COVID-19 deaths doubled the quickest. Currently, Malawi is among the 20 countries in Africa with a case fatality (3.1 percent) above the global average of 2.2 percent. Additionally, of the 20 African countries that the Johns Hopkins University has testing data on; Malawi is among the countries with a low testing rate (testing 2 people per thousand). Importantly, while the WHO recommends a positive rate of 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days as an indicator that a country has the pandemic under control. The positivity rate for Malawi has surpassed this threshold, hovering mostly around 20 percent.