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“My fears were many when my five-year old child developed high fever in the early hours of this morning. The nearest health facility is kilometers away from my house. Besides, I have no money to provide food for my family talk more of medication, a situation  compounded by  restriction on movement as part of COVID-19 control measures”, says  Malama Aisha a 35 year old internally displaced person (IDP) in Maiduguri.

With more than 6000 COVID-19 cases reported in Africa, the virus is threatening fragile health systems on the continent. Infections are increasingly spreading not only between African countries but within different localities in the hardest-hit countries.

As staff deployment to support countries becomes unfeasible due to travel restrictions and shutdowns implemented by several African countries to halt the spread of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa today launched the first online training for emergency responders to bolster  efforts in tackling the virus. The two-hour session via video link drew 500 participants and focused on the clinical symptoms of the virus, how to triage COVID-19 cases, treat complications, manage severely ill patients, laboratory testing strategy as well as quarantine strategies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa hosted its first virtual ‘hackathon’ bringing together 100 leading innovators from across sub-Saharan Africa in a bid to pioneer creative local solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic and address critical gaps in the regional response.