Most cases and deaths in South Africa
In the Southern African region, the overall number of individuals infected with COVID-19 was close to 4.21 million by early March 2022. Of those, South Africa recorded roughly 3.68 million cases, while Botswana and Namibia registered around 264 thousand and 157.3 thousand cases, respectively. By the same period, South Africa also accounted for most of the deaths in the region. Despite Botswana recording more infections than Namibia, the number of deaths was higher in Namibia at roughly four thousand, while 2.62 thousand people lost their lives to the pandemic in Botswana.Strong economic impact
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, projections showed that Southern Africa lost one million full-time jobs in the fourth quarter of 2020. This was lower than both previous quarters. Moreover, all the countries in the region were projected to see their economies recover in 2021 and 2022 after a rough 2020. According to estimates, in 2020, Botswana had a negative real GDP growth of 8.9 percent due to the pandemic. However, the economy was projected to recover in 2021 and 2022 with real GDP growth rates of 7.5 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.Efforts to accelerate vaccination campaigns
To minimize the effect of the pandemic, governments are rolling out vaccination campaigns in an attempt to stop future potential waves. The ability to provide vaccines varies widely across the countries depending on vaccine supply and procurement. In Southern Africa, Botswana had the highest vaccination rate, followed by South Africa. Botswana administered a total of 1.44 million vaccine doses, while South Africa provided roughly 32 million doses as of early March 2022. On the other hand, Lesotho had a much slower vaccination campaign. By March 2022, the country had given a total of 926.8 thousand doses.
