Bill Gates expresses surprise why numbers of COVID-19 deaths are not high in Africa

Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), has said he does not understand why coronavirus numbers have not been as high as predicted in Africa.

It will be recalled that Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, had in more than one occasion, warned that there will be dead bodies all over the streets of Africa if the world does not act fast enough.

Melinda noted that her heart was in Africa, as she was worried that the continent might not be able to handle the devastating effect of the virus.

However, Bill said in his end of the year note, that he was happy his prediction about Africa has not happened.

“One thing I’m happy to have been wrong about—at least, I hope I was wrong—is my fear that Covid-19 would run rampant in low-income countries. So far, this hasn’t been true,” he wrote.

In most of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, case rates and death rates remain much lower than in the U.S. or Europe and on par with New Zealand, which has received so much attention for its handling of the virus.

“The hardest-hit country on the continent is South Africa—but even there, the case rate is 40 percent lower than in the US, and the death rate is nearly 50 percent lower.

“We don’t have enough data yet to understand why the numbers aren’t as high as I worried they would get — but gave probable reasons Africa was not as affected as expected.”