Africa UN Knowledge Hub for COVID-19

A report from the Imperial College London (ICL) COVID-19 Response Team in collaboration with multiple partners, revealed on Tuesday that an estimated two per cent of COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Khartoum, while the Sudanese Minister of Health, Osama Abdelrahim, reported a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 infections this week.

At a sprawling warehouse in Lusaka, a truck is loaded with boxes of lifesaving antiretrovirals and begins a two-hour drive west out of Zambia’s capital city. It’s on its way to a rural health clinic in Mwembeshi, and today there are additions to its usual cargo: boxes of face masks and face shields from Apple to help in the fight against COVID-19.

In a busy intensive care unit in Eka Kotebe General Hospital, Addis Ababa, Dr Samuel Getnet, 28, a newly-recruited young and energetic physician anxiously monitors the mechanical ventilators, an indispensable form of life support for COVID-19 patients with respiratory distress.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) launched a new partnership initiative to strengthen the capacity of Africa CDC to prepare for and respond to public health threats in Africa. The four-year project ‘EU for health security in Africa: ECDC for Africa CDC', funded by the EU, will also facilitate harmonised surveillance and disease intelligence, and support the implementation of the public health workforce strategy of Africa CDC.

Nouakchott - "Before, we had to go and find people willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, now they come by themselves!" exclaims Mr Elhadi Sidi Mohamed, head of the vaccination site at the National Hospital Center in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

The African Union (AU) intends to buy up to 110 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Inc in an arrangement brokered in part by the White House which will defer delivery of some doses intended for the United States to facilitate the deal, officials told Reuters news agency.

Brazzaville - Just five African countries, less than 10% of Africa’s 54 nations, are projected to hit the year-end target of fully vaccinating 40% of their people, unless efforts to accelerate the pace take off.

The analysis, conducted by science analytics company Airfinity, exposes the severity of vaccine inequity between high-income and low-income countries, especially in Africa.

Using the successes of the COVID-19 responses, formulating a coordinated response to HIV could lessen the virus and end another pandemic which has been ongoing for far longer than COVID-19.

The coronavirus was expected to devastate the continent, but higher-income and better-prepared countries appear to have fared far worse.