With over 600 000 Covid-19 cases already recorded in Africa, the World Health Organisation‘s (WHO) regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti says that global solidarity is needed more now than ever in fighting the pandemic which has already claimed 13 000 lives on the continent. 

Not an accurate picture  

Speaking at a WHO briefing on Covid-19 in Africa, Moeti says that they might be an underestimation of Covid-19 cases due to limited number of tests being conducted. 

“There is no doubt that particularly in some of the low-income countries there is some degree of underestimation of the cases because testing is limited to those who are showing symptoms in most of the countries. Due to challenges in accessing some of the difficult humanitarian settings, cases of Covid-19 are possibly under reported,” says Moeti. 

Not everyone can get tested  

Dr Pierre Somse, minister of health and population in Central African Republic, says that amid of shortages of Covid-19 tests kits, they have decided to limit testing to those who are at high risk of dying from the virus. 

“We [have] a shortage of Covid-19 tests kits as we only have the ones which we received as donations from the Chinese government. We also have a shortage of oxygen [and ventilators]. For those reasons we have decided to focus mostly on those who have comorbidities to ensure that they are screened and tested. We are faced with an unequal humanity, had it not been for the … donation …, we couldn’t know how many positive cases we have,” says Somse. 

Higher exposure  

Moeti says that refugees and displaced people remain the most vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa. “Sub-Saharan Africa hosts many refugees and around 19 million internally displaced people who have fled their homes due to violent conflicts and during this global crisis [these] are among the most vulnerable people in the world to [the] Covid-19 pandemic,” says Moeti. 

She says that in crowded and sometimes very low resourced settings such as camps and settlements, the basic preventive measures such as physical distancing and frequent hand washing can be incredibly challenging to implement.  

“But we recommend health screenings for new arrivals, temporary isolation facilities for suspected cases, adapting activities such as food distributions to limit gatherings and ensuring access to water supply and hand washing stations,” says Moeti. 

Doing more  

This week the United Nations (UN) will launch an update to the global humanitarian response plan to scale up access to life essential services for health, water, sanitation, food, and nutrition for vulnerable populations.  

“This action is urgently needed, already funding shortages have resulted in reduced food in some settlements and even a threat of increases in acute malnutrition and stunting. For at least three months now vulnerable communities have been experiencing socio-economic difficulties caused by Covid-19,” says Moeti.  

“South Africa‘s health system compared to many countries has the capabilities of providing care for people in terms of outcomes and case fatality rates and it has been able to immediately leverage the capacity of the private sector as well as the use of public sector hence we have seen [a] fatality rate which [isn’t] that high,” adds Moeti. 

Other ramifications  

A Sudanese refugee living in UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Dadaab camp in Kenya, Adhieu Achuil Dhieu Kueth, says that teenage pregnancy has increased since the pandemic started in Kenya. “Schools are closed and most of the learners are facing a challenge of online learning as they are used to being in classrooms. Physical distancing is also a challenge due to limited housing space as we [have a] shortage of shelters as most of the youth are sharing the rooms. There is also an increase of teenage pregnancy and crime as youth have nothing to do,” says Kueth.  

Regional director of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Patrick Youssef, says that violence in Africa remains a stumbling block in delivering health services. 

“Violence continues to hamper the delivery of health services in the most sensitive places, where social distancing is impossible, and a [litre] of water is a luxury. Conflicts and violence are continuing in many parts of Africa and is driving deaths and injuries as hundreds of people are either killed or injured daily. And health workers are not spared [from] this violence, if Africa starts losing its health workers which are already few in numbers, the entire system will struggle and [we] will have an impact not only [from] Covid-19 … but in all other diseases,” says Youssef. 

He says: “Containing the virus is certainly the most complex issue we have to deal with and containing the virus in displacement places and prison, those are the most prominent places we have to avoid at all cost the spread of Covid-19, we have to adapt our ways of working and insist on the impartiality of humanitarian action and try to get as much as possible to have a dialogue with all [people] on the ground. We need to work with local people such as religious circles.” – Health-e News 

For more information on Covid-19 in South Africa, you can call the toll-free line on 0800 029 999, or you can send a message that says “Hi” on WhatsApp to the number 060 012 3456. You can also visit the  SA Coronavirus website.