Nearly 15 million children have been vaccinated against measles in Ethiopia in an effort by the health authorities to maintain essential health services, even as they battle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many frontline workers are putting their lives on-the-line in the response to COVID-19 Pandemic. They put their lives at risk daily, tasked with the critical mission of controlling the spread and mitigating the impact of this pandemic. Mrs. Berhane Beyene is one of those heroines with the mission-essential task of keeping laboratory surveillance and detection of COVID-19 in motion.
March 3,2020- UN Ethiopia organizes a COVID-19 tabletop simulation exercise (SIMEX) for the UN agencies in Ethiopia with the support of World Health Organization Ethiopia Country Office. Over 60 participants from UN 25 agencies participated in the exercise. The simulation exercise aims to strengthen preparedness and response capacity for a potential COVID-19 outbreak in the UN system in Ethiopia.
The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The case, which was announced on the 13th of March 2020, is the first one to be reported in Ethiopia since the beginning of the outbreak in China in December 2019.
March 6, 2020, WHO provided technical guidance and facilitation support for the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ethiopian Public Health Institution (EPHI) COVID-19 Table Top Simulation Exercise (TTX), which was held on March 5, 2020.
The Ethiopian Parliament has passed landmark legislation with the express aim of curbing smoking in the country. As a result of the legislation, Ethiopia has now introduced a mixed-excise system on cigarettes in line with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). This involves a 30% tax rate of the cost of producing cigarettes, in addition to a specific excise rate of eight Ethiopian Birr (ETB) (USD$ 0.25) on each individual packet.
Home to one of Africa’s busiest international airline hubs, Ethiopia is bolstering preparedness to contain a potential outbreak of coronavirus disease, now known as COVID-19. Health authorities are tightening up surveillance, diagnosis, epidemic response coordination and public health education to swiftly detect cases and limit widespread infections. Ethiopia is among 13 African countries the World Health Organization (WHO) considers as top priority for COVID-19 preparedness due to direct links or a high volume of travel to China. No case has been reported in the continent. WHO is strengthening its support to countries to detect and manage suspect cases and ensure a robust response when the first case is detected.
The recently appointed WHO Representative to Ethiopia, Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, presented his credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a meeting with the Ethiopian State Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Dr Markos Tekle, in his office on 20 December 2019.
Sr Ethalemahu G/Yohanees is a head nurse in Ghandi Memorial Gynecological and Obstetric Hospital in Addis Ababa.
