The figures for the new year in Kenya allow for the most cautious optimism possible, but optimism nonetheless. In a country that has gone through ten months of pandemic without hardly observing protocols, reopening its borders and internal regions since last August, going naturally and somewhat anarchically towards herd immunity, in the last 24 hours there has not been a single death from Covid-19 in a country of 50 million people.
81 cases across Kenya, all asymptomatic, intensive care units now empty, special hospital wards closing, mortuaries in routine and so on.
Health care grappling with strikes, lack of funds and tools but not collapse, situation under control almost everywhere.
Far be it from anyone to make projections, let alone say that the worst is over, but really, if it continued like this, it would be a cakewalk. After ten months that we have been following the curves and waves on a daily basis, it seems to us that we can draw up an initial calculation which shows that the virus in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of South Africa which, as we know, has always been a reality apart, even climatically, has not taken root as it has elsewhere in the world.
Let us wait cautiously, but let us begin to realise that the famous massacre predicted by experts and the World Health Organisation has not taken place, at least so far.
We repeat, this is only the observation at the beginning of the new year, but it is undoubtedly a fact that should make us reflect and understand that the pandemic has not had the same effects everywhere and that for now the Dark Continent has only been touched by the drama that has instead brought Italy to its knees. We hope that everything will pass in Europe and in the other countries still afflicted and burdened by restrictions. In Kenya, where there have always been so many unresolved problems, it is time to reopen.