Feature Stories

Like many African countries now making use of Ebola and Influenza preparedness to step up their COVID-19 response, Tanzania is tapping into the skills of health workers already knowledgeable in infectious disease control, established influenza sentinel surveillance system and repurposing facilities to tackle the new virus.

In Beni General Hospital in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the neonatal ward is full beyond capacity. A row of young women sits on benches outside, proudly holding their newborns. For nurse Espérance Kavira Kavota, this is a welcome return to normal.

As staff deployment to support countries becomes unfeasible due to travel restrictions and shutdowns implemented by several African countries to halt the spread of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa today launched the first online training for emergency responders to bolster  efforts in tackling the virus. The two-hour session via video link drew 500 participants and focused on the clinical symptoms of the virus, how to triage COVID-19 cases, treat complications, manage severely ill patients, laboratory testing strategy as well as quarantine strategies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa hosted its first virtual ‘hackathon’ bringing together 100 leading innovators from across sub-Saharan Africa in a bid to pioneer creative local solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic and address critical gaps in the regional response.

When a sample sent to the referral laboratory in the capital Algiers gave a positive result, the Ministry of Health announced Algeria’s first COVID-19 case on 26 February, becoming the second African country to confirm the virus. Since then, dozens of people have caught the infection. Unlike years past, it now takes just two hours to analyse such specimen. In addition to speed, the laboratory is also striving to ensure testing integrity – an important cog in the efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19.

When the Kenyan Government announced the country’s first case of COVID-19, clinician Jackson Njoroge was already hard at work.  He and his colleagues from the Kenyan Ministry of Health’s Rapid Response Team had already drawn up a list of people who might have come into contact with the first patient.  Now they were rushing to find them. His mission was to find another passenger from the flight that had brought Kenya’s case into the country.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has already helped train 1,500 Kenyan health workers in various health facilities to prepare for just this situation.  With the announcement, the country’s government and WHO Office shifted from a state of readiness to response mode.

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially designated COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020. There are now 147 confirmed cases in Africa in 15 countries, and there have been four COVID-19-related deaths. 

Leaning over desks with hands-free headsets hugging veils or bare heads, a team of doctors answers seemingly endless phone calls. Hundreds of worried callers ring every day to seek advice on how to stay safe, understand the symptoms or find out if the flu they are battling is indeed the new COVID-19. 

The observation period of the last people to have come in contact with an Ebola patient in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ended, another significant step in the efforts to end the outbreak. The 21-day follow-up for the 46 contacts elapsed on 10 March.