SA’s exemplary COVID-19 response

The country’s proactive handling of the global pandemic has been lauded

South Africa, together with the rest of the African continent, has handled the COVID-19 pandemic well, given the circumstances that the world finds itself in.

Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organisation's Health Emergencies Programme, said African countries were innovative in their response to COVID-19 and, in some instances, were leading the way, before singling out South Africa's efforts.

“It is interesting the way in which South Africa is bringing the disease under control. The strategy in South Africa was based on preparation, lockdown and enhance surveillance.

“Sixty-seven mobile lab units around the country, 28 000 community healthcare workers trained in case detection and over 120 000 tests completed with a 2.7 percent positivity rate, which is incredible – that much testing for that return,” he added.

Chief Executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs Elizabeth Sidiropoulos said Africa has been proactive in its approach.

“I think in Africa as a whole, what has been apparent is a significant amount of coordination among African countries early on,” she said.

The African continent has learnt from other countries dealing with the pandemic that has grappled the world.

“I think both South Africa and Africa have taken the lessons learnt from other countries and responded with seriousness... which has not been the case in a number of other countries.”

Sidiropoulos said that as far back as February 2020,African health ministers came together to chart a way forward to address the pandemic. Recently African Union Chairperson (AU) President Cyril Ramaphosa convened a second teleconference meeting of the AU Bureau.

In responding to the pandemic, many countries had fallen victim to what Sidiropoulos refers to as 'mixed messaging' and a lack of coordination.

“One of the most important things when dealing with pandemics is that there has to be a sense of public trust. Citizens have to trust that the government actually knows what it's doing. That has not been the case in

other countries.”

She believes that in some countries the pandemic has been used for political gain.

“I think it has been politicised and we have done less of that in our case.”

South Africa's first case of COVID-19 was reported on 5 March 2020, when a KwaZulu-Natal man returned from abroad.

Response with purpose

Sidiropoulos commended government's efforts to curb the spread of the disease, including the implementation of a national lockdown that started 27 March 2020.

Also lauding efforts put in place to stop the spread of the virus, was Dean of the University of KwaZulu-Natal's School of Nursing and Public Health, Professor Mosa Moshabela.

“Firstly I must commend government for instituting the lockdown so early. We saw initially when the national disaster was declared that people were still confused and did not really cooperate with it in that first week. For government to move to what I consider a 'heavy duty lockdown', which is considered to be one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, was really a swift, rapid response with purpose,” he said.

Improved coordination

Over the course of the lockdown, South Africa, he said, has seen better government coordination in the way that the various ministers have addressed regulations put in place to deal with the virus.

“On the health systems side, we have seen a lot of preparation.

The Minister of Health will always emphasise the need to increase capacity for laboratory testing... On top of that, add the relaxation of testing criteria to make sure that there is mass screening of the population. You can see that the Department of Health and the Ministry is using the time to put things in place which we might not have had the time to do, had we not had the lockdown.”

Professor Moshabela also expressed concern about the peddling of fake news about COVID-19, an issue which government has moved to address.

“What I was really happy about was when we started to see arrests of those who were peddling misinformation because people were falling victim to this misinformation. The lockdown has really done us good.”

While the majority of the South Africans stayed home during the lockdown, health practitioners had their stethoscopes firmly around their neck as they were considered essential service workers.

“Our health workers are warriors. They have fought through many things in the history of our health system and they are prepared to fight COVID-19. All they are asking for is personal protective equipment which is appropriate for the task at hand.”

Professor Moshabela said many South Africans are struggling with uncertainty that is linked to issues about mortality.

“You feel helpless when you have to think about not knowing what's going to come next.You then have to grapple with the fact that you're not invincible and that you're vulnerable as well, when you see people getting infected.

“I do think there's a lot of uncertainty, but I think that what has helped is the good communication from the President [Cyril Ramaphosa] and Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize, as well as other Ministers, in terms of updating people. It helps in that people are not completely lost; they see what is going on,” he said.

Sidiropoulos and Professor Moshabela expressed pride at how South Africa, during these pressing times, had came out in support of one another.This as those who have continued to donate to those who have very little or nothing.

In a time of unprecedented change, South Africa's principle of 'Ubuntu' continues to shine.