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Bill Gates Warns Coronavirus Could Cause Over 10 Million Excess Deaths In Africa

Bill Gates Warns Coronavirus Could Cause Over 10 Million Excess Deaths In Africa

Microsoft founder, Bill Gates has said that a spread of the novel coronavirus into Africa may result in chaos since most of the countries do not have strong health systems that could withstand the virus.

Speaking at the AAAS meeting in Seattle just hours before the first case was confirmed in Cairo, Egypt, Gates said that the virus could disrupt health systems and economies and cause more than 10 million excess deaths. He said:

This disease, if it’s in Africa it’s more dramatic than if it’s in China, even though I’m not trying to minimise what’s going on in China in any way.

He gave reference to Ebola saying that most of the excess deaths were caused because the health service shut down. Gates added that the health systems in Africa already were in bad shape therefore they could not contain the epidemic effectively and timeously.
Coronavirus was first reported to the World Health Organisation in December last year when it was discovered in China. It has now since spread to more than 20 other countries and the death toll is now beyond 1600.

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