ENGELA DUVENAGE MAINA WARURU BENNETT OGHIFO from Nigeria, ADOLPHUS MAWOLO AGATHA NGOTHO CHRISTOPHE HITAYEZU ANDRÉ PALICE NDIMURUKUNDO

FOR THE first time in the 187-year history of the South African Dairy Championships, there was no swanky awards dinner in a town hall, nor an audience to applaud the winners. Names of those who bagged the awards were announced on March 26, 2020 via a live Facebook broadcast event. This wasn’t done for novelty’s sake, but for the fear of the looming COVID-19 epidemic. The event was held 12 hours before South Africa imposed a 21-day lockdown to stop spread of the virus. By April 6, South Africa had the continent’s highest number of COVID-19 patients, accounting for over 28 per cent of the total cases. After four days of lockdown, the country became the first in the continent to roll out door-to-door screening for the infection, deploying 10,000 workers. President Cyril Ramaphosa declared in his address to the country: “People with symptoms will be referred to local clinics or mobile clinics for testing. Those found to be infected with the virus but with no or moderate symptoms, will remain in isolation at home or at a facility provided by government.”

African nations have been precautionary

reports from South Africa, and from Kenya, from Senegal, from Rwanda and from D R Congo

in facing the pandemic. Like South Africa, Kenya prepared for an elaborate online teaching regime before closing educational institutions for two weeks, starting March 12. A state body called Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development has intensified delivery of school programmes through radio and TV broadcasts. “Following the closure, 15 million primary and secondary school learners are now at home and need guida-nce on home-based learning,” says George Magoha, the country’s education minister.

The COVID-19 pandemic comes almost six years after Senegal treated its only confirmed case of Ebola in the 2014 outbreak in West Africa that affected Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The experience from that outbreak has guided authorities to properly design and closely coordinate efforts in containing the current pandemic. “The first response to this pandemic was to set up an emergency operations centre to lead and coordinate all operations,” says Abdoulaye Bousso, director, Public Health Emergency Operation Center, Ministry of Health. He added there was a need to “learn from the past experience to

THE 2014 EBOLA OUTBREAK HAS GUIDED AUTHORITIES TO PROPERLY DESIGN AND CLOSELY COORDINATE EFFORTS IN CONTAINING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

clearly define and design messages for public awareness.” Senegal’s effective management of infectious diseases such as measles-rubella, meningitis, tuberculosis and rabies over the years places it in a better position among regional neighbours. To bolster people’s understanding of the pandemic, the government is mobilising communities and disseminating vital information. It is also using social influencers, such as musicians and clerics to drive messages to their followers. “The country has a strong, integrated disease surveillance and response to include communitybased surveillance reporting,” says Alpha Barry, epidemiologist and public health specialist from Guinea. He led the fight against the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Notwithstanding the seemingly proactive reactions, Africa is also expected to be

African countries have been precautionary in dealing with the pandemic, particularly because they have a fragile healthcare infrastructure

on guard given its fragile healthcare infrastructure. Also, transmission rate of

COVID-19 is now faster than last month. From March 15 to the end of the month the number of countries affected shot up from 9 to 41. By April 12 the viral infection was reported from all the countries in the continent with the total cases crossing 13,000. The World Health Organization

(WHO) has cautioned the spread in Africa as a deadly situation given prevalence of

HIV/AIDS and malnutrition.

This also negates the perceived protections from the pandemic in the continent— Africa is the youngest continent with the median age of 19.7 years (it is 38.4 years in China). COVID-19 has affected people above 60 years more and proved fatal for those with other illnesses. But till now, there is no clear trend on how the virus is