WHO says Africa women at lower risk of contacting COVID-19

A preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 28 African countries shows that women account for a slightly smaller proportion of COVID-19 infections and deaths compared with men.

The analysis based on COVID-19 gender-specific epidemiological data provided by countries found that although women account for around 41% of COVID-19 cases, this ranges from 31% in Niger to over 57% in South Africa.

In most countries, women are somewhat less likely to die from COVID-19 than men. for instance, in Cote D’ivoire, the case fatality ratio stands at 0.4% for women compared with 0.5% in men, while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo it is 2.2% versus 2.7% and 0.1% versus 0.5% in Seychelles.

This comes despite women accounting for a large part of the health workforce which puts them at higher risk of infection.

In Africa, more than 95 000 health workers have been infected with COVID-19.