Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Good morning, good afternoon to all our colleagues from the press who are joining us.
It is my great pleasure to be joined today by the Honourable Minister of Health of Burkina Faso, Dr Leonie Claudine Lougue, Bonjour Claudine, and Honourable Minister of Health and Population of Sierra Leone, Dr Alpha Wurie. Welcome Ministers, thank you so much for having made time to join us today. I would also like to welcome Dr Jemima Dennis-Antwi who is an international maternal health and midwifery specialist joining us from Ghana.
Together we will be discussing how COVID-19 is affecting health workers, who take care of all of us, who provide treatments and care and make sure that even if we get ill with the virus, we minimize the number of people who get seriously ill and die. In addition to doing that, they also have a heightened risk of getting infected with COVID-19, they also have concerns about taking the virus home, they also suffer psychosocial pressures from working around the clock – we have seen in countries where the situation is difficult, how hard the health-care workers are working – and in some communities, they face stigma and discrimination because of fears and misinformation around this virus.
Dedicated nurses, cleaners, doctors, laboratory technicians and community health workers are on the frontlines of this response and I would like to join communities and leaders worldwide in paying tribute to the contribution they make.
They protect us and so too people and the national authorities should protect health-care workers, and I’m sure the Honourable Ministers will share with us how this is being done in their countries.
In the African Region, more than 10,000 health workers have been infected with COVID-19.
One of the biggest challenges in protecting health workers has been the global shortage of personal protective equipment, which has severely affected countries on the continent.
Through the Global UN Supply platform, more than 2 million items of PPE (including masks, goggles and gloves) have been shipped to African countries and 41 million PPE items are in the pipeline for shipment starting this weekend. We are committed in WHO, with the support of international partners, to continue helping countries to replenish these essential supplies.
Turning then to the COVID-19 situation: countries have continued to ease restrictions on people moving and gathering, and we have seen that now on the continent there are almost 770,000 reported cases and more than 16,000 people who have died of COVID-19.
In the WHO African Region, which is mainly sub-Saharan Africa, we have had more than 115,000 cases in the past week, and 93% of these cases occurred in 10 countries, including over 74% (so almost three quarters) coming from South Africa. Cases have also increased in Southern African countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. And we see that however, 12 countries have remained at having fewer than 1000 cases.
In Africa and in countries all over the world, there is very robust discussion and decision-making happening, as countries have to balance public health and the social measures put in place with the opening of economies, opening schools and businesses. This easing of measures now demands a really strong focus on prevention through strengthened public health systems and action by communities.
I would like to end by reiterating our call for global solidarity and equitable access to essential supplies in fighting COVID-19, including personal protective equipment, test kits and other critical items. There are urgent and continuous needs for support from the international community as African countries respond to this crisis.
Finally, I’d like to mention that this week WHO and Africa CDC launched an expert advisory committee to provide independent scientific advice and support to countries on research and development of traditional medicines and remedies for COVID-19.
I very much look forward to today’s discussion and thank everyone so much for joining us.