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Along with the global health community, The Wellbeing Foundation Africa has taken note of the WHO declaration of a public health emergency of international concern over the global outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus.
WHO has identified 13 top priority countries (Algeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia) which either have direct links or a high volume of travel to China.
“To ensure rapid detection of the novel coronavirus, it is important to have laboratories which can test samples and WHO is supporting countries to improve their testing capacity. Since this is a new virus, there are currently only two referral laboratories in the African region which have the reagents needed to conduct such tests.”
“However, reagent kits are being shipped to more than 20 other countries in the region, so diagnostic capacity is expected to increase over the coming days. Active screening at airports has been established in a majority of these countries and while they will be WHO first areas of focus, the organization will support all countries in the region in their preparation efforts”
“It is critical that countries step up their readiness and in particular put in place effective screening mechanisms at airports and other major points of entry to ensure that the first cases are detected quickly”
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa commends and thanks the thousands of courageous frontline heroes, the frontline health professionals who are working around the clock in affected regions to treat the sick, save lives and bring this outbreak under control. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa continues to advocate and urge, particularly in Nigeria which is currently responding to a Lassa Fever outbreak in over 11 states, that investment in a skilled and sustainable, locally led frontline health workforce able to detect, report and respond to threats and deliver quality health services including water, sanitation and hygiene essentials for infection prevention and control, is crucial to building health systems resilient to outbreak.
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