Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Thank you, Chairperson,
In the African Region, we recognize that the 1.2 million cases that have been reported and the 26,000 people that have sadly lost their lives, possibly represent an underrepresentation of the situation because our Region’s countries have had huge difficulties in accessing some of the supplies and equipment for testing. Nevertheless, we observe that the epidemic is not as severe as some initial projections foretold.
I would like here to recognize the swift and decisive actions taken by African leaders and governments in putting in place physical distancing measures (such as border closures, limiting gatherings), which we know came at a huge cost to national economies and also for household welfare.
This created a window of opportunity to strengthen capacities, building on experiences from past epidemics of Ebola, of polio and of Lassa fever among others. COVID-19 testing was scaled-up, the DG said it, from two to 45 countries in just a few weeks and training of health-care workers ramped up in surveillance, infection prevention and control, case management and other critical areas.
We would like as the Secretariat to echo the call of Burkina Faso on behalf of the 47 Member States in the African Region, for global solidarity, including it was stated, debt repayment, rescheduling and debt forgiveness, and equity across and within countries, including particularly in distributing COVID-19 technologies, such as vaccines. We have been very happy to participate in the COVAX discussions and recognize that this mechanism is key in working together towards this. We have already started as well to work with our Member States towards readiness to deploy the vaccine and other technologies when they become available.
Our Region faces significant challenges as far as primary health care and the performance of our health systems is concerned, so the essential services pillar is an important component of our incident management and the work that we are doing with our Member States.
Now, as countries and partners sustain the strong response to COVID-19, communities must be enabled to play their role and internalize adherence to the preventive measures. We must also proactively address challenges of complacency and vaccine hesitancy.
Chair, I would finally like to make reference to the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse about which several Member States have expressed concern and join the sentiments expressed by Dr Tedros in our response at WHO to this problem. I look forward to working together with the Director-General on the investigation whose preparation we are finalizing and on improving our platforms, including for whistleblowers and communities and most importantly for the most vulnerable people with whom we work, women in the field. I had a townhall meeting with my staff on Friday emphasizing these points and we welcome contributions from all Member States and partners towards ensuring that we are indeed able to exercise zero tolerance of sexual exploitation and abuse in our work places and all our operations that we have in our Member States.
I thank you very much for your attention.