As Somalia's COVID-19 cases surge, a variant is suspected

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A resurgence of COVID-19 cases is hitting Somalia hard, straining one of the world’s most fragile health systems, while officials await test results to show whether a more infectious variant of the coronavirus is spreading.

In the lone COVID-19 isolation center in the capital, Mogadishu, 50 people have died in the past two and a half weeks, Martini hospital deputy director Sadaq Adan Hussein told The Associated Press during a visit. Sixty other patients admitted during the period have recovered.

“We believe this second wave is the new variant of the virus,” he said. “Earlier, when 100 suspected patients were brought to quarantine, not more than 30 of them would be positive, but now almost all of them are infected.”

Somalia’s virus infections have jumped from 4,784 to 6,549 this month alone, according to official data.

Test results for the presence of one of the new variants are expected next month, Sadaq said.

Somalia, like most African countries, has yet to see a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, though they also are expected to start arriving next month.

Among the famous Somalis who have died from COVID-19 in recent days include well-known singer Fatuma Ali Nakruma and popular Islamic scholar Sheikh Nur Barud Gurhan.

Sadaq said a large, unnamed Somali-owned company had lost a dozen people to COVID-19 in just the past few days.

“Now you see how widespread is becoming this new variant of the virus, and we were not prepared for it,” he said.

Misinformation on social media claiming a far higher number of deaths in Somalia “has caused some people to avoid the hospital, where they would get the necessary care, and instead they die in their houses,” Sadaq said.

He called the rumors politically motivated.

Somalia’s current crisis...