Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Good morning, good afternoon, Bonjour, tout le monde and thank you all for joining us for this press conference on the possible resurgence of cases in Africa and how countries are preparing as we approach the holiday season.
Indeed as we see what’s happening in Europe, all the discussion that’s going on about Thanksgiving in the United States, for example, as there too, we see a significant uptick. What does that mean for our Region?
I am really pleased to be joined by Professor Salim Abdool Karim from South Africa, welcome Salim, and Dr Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, who is the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Regional Director for Western and Central Africa. Thank you so much for having joined us today.
So, indeed, we are now nearing the time of year when people travel to spend their holidays together. These end-of-year get togethers are a key part of our lives in African countries as well as worldwide, but they certainly can increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Greater mobility and large gatherings and even small gatherings at the family level can lead to new clusters of cases in parts of Africa that might previously have been spared.
This comes as some African countries are experiencing a concerning uptick in cases. There are now more than 2 million COVID-19 cases in Africa and sadly 48,000 people have lost their lives. In the 47 countries of the WHO African Region, mainly sub-Saharan Africa plus Algeria, there are more than 1.4 million reported cases and 31,800 deaths. In the past 28 days, cases have increased compared to the previous month, in 19 countries in the Region, including countries like Kenya, Algeria, Ghana and Angola.
In most of the affected African countries, the rise in new cases is coming from workplaces and family gatherings. And, of course, we know that there are several political elections coming up in a number of countries, campaigns going on and gatherings as far as that is concerned. We see that people are starting to relax around colleagues and loved ones. I can tell you I see that in our office as well. I have become a big scold of colleagues; asking them to remember some of these measures and we see that in communities and it is hard not to really when physical distancing measures have kept us, and kept people, apart for so long. There is certain level of fatigue around this and the upcoming holiday season may simply exacerbate this situation.
We do know that outbreaks spread socially, and we can stop them with safe social interactions. So, I would like to ask everyone to be mindful of your individual risks and the risks of your loved ones and friends and neighbours. So, we’re encouraging: meet outdoors where possible, avoid mass gatherings absolutely, continue physical distancing and practising frequent hand hygiene and wearing a mask, particularly around older people and those people who have diabetes, hypertension, those comorbidities that make them vulnerable to severe forms of the illness and even risk their lives.
Wearing masks can save lives. This is why WHO is launching today the “Mask Up, Not Down” campaign which aims to reach over 40 million young people in Africa on social media by the end of 2020.
It’s clear to us that somehow the way of getting the message out needs to be adjusted now that people have done relatively well in the past but we need to re-engage, re-energize and help them better to sustain some of these measures.
In addition, sustained and scaled-up public health measures remain important including testing and using test kits to find cases quickly, to find their contacts and to stop chains of transmission.
In the past two weeks, we have seen promising news, with initial data from phase three trials for two COVID-19 vaccines indicating high levels of efficacy – 95% or so. We are now working with African countries on readiness and preparedness to roll out the vaccines even as we await the final results of the trials. And even as we work in the COVAX, this partnership platform to make sure that enough resources are available for the work that needs to be done.
Finally, some good news, while fighting COVID-19, WHO has also been supporting the Democratic Republic of the Congo to control its eleventh outbreak of Ebola. Yesterday, the Government declared it over. This is a big achievement as it took place over a huge and often inaccessible terrain.
Innovations used to fight Ebola, such as technologies to keep vaccines at super-cold temperatures, will be helpful when we are bringing onboard a COVID-19 vaccine to Africa.
So, I’d like commend and congratulate the communities, the frontline health care workers, the authorities and the partners who worked together to contain this Ebola outbreak. Through collective action and using public health tools like active case finding and contact tracing, we can bring an end to outbreaks.
I look forward very much to our conversation today and thank you once again for having joined us.