SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Mail and Guardian - Coronavirus reaches Sudan, one of the countries least equipped to cope with it
In a feature piece, Khartoum-based writer Mark Weston explores Sudan’s readiness for coronavirus, attributing Sudan’s “withered” public health services to corruption under Omar al-Bashir’s rule which enabled cronies to make vast profits from private hospitals.
With most Sudanese unable to afford private healthcare, 18 of Sudan’s 80 ventilators are in a single Khartoum private hospital, with Sudan possessing under 200 critical care beds, and only 40 in public hospitals. The ministry of health has only a few dozen testing kits, meaning that the true number of coronavirus cases “may be much higher than the official figure.”
Health care professionals have called for more antiviral drugs, ventilators, ambulances, hand sanitisers and personal protective equipment for health workers.
While the sparsely spread population outside Khartoum may help to slow the spread of coronavirus, Weston notes that Sudanese risks include: large families living