COVID-19: African Countries Urged Not to Drop Guard

COVID-19: African Countries Urged Not to Drop Guard

With up to 6,000 new cases being registered weekly in the African region, countries have been urged not to drop their guard despite COVID-19 declining as a public health emergency of international concern.

“The acute phase of the pandemic might be over, but the pandemic still exists globally. Therefore, we need to take precautions to ensure we remain safe,” Prof. Jayne Byakika Tusiime, Incident Manager for the COVID-19 Incident Management Support team, World Health Organization (WHO) Africa office said.

She was speaking during a webinar dubbed COVID-19 Transition Beyond the Acute Stage of the Pandemic in Africa.

Noting that vaccination has proven effective in preventing the severity of disease and death, Prof. Byakika said that vaccination remains a key strategy for countries to keep COVID-19 in check.

Despite this, she noted that the vaccination rates in Africa are still low and countries need to ramp up this exercise.

Statistics from WHO show that seven out of ten people globally have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine compared to less than four out of ten in Africa. Additionally, only 30% of the African population have completed two doses compared to 65% worldwide.

 

By Sharon Atieno

https://scienceafrica.co.ke/2023/06/15/covid-19-african-countries-urged-not-to-drop-guard/#:~:text=With%20up%20to%206%2C000%20new,health%20emergency%20of%20international%20concern.

Related post

Tuberculosis resurges as top infectious disease killer

Tuberculosis resurges as top infectious disease killer

The World Health Organization (WHO) today published a new report on tuberculosis revealing that approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with…
WHO urges Nigeria to embrace AI in disease surveillance

WHO urges Nigeria to embrace AI in disease surveillance

According to Mr Mulombo, Nigeria can enhance its ability to detect, prevent, and respond to public health emergencies by adopting AI…
Nigeria first country to launch Mental Health Gap Action Programme — FG

Nigeria first country to launch Mental Health Gap Action…

Nigeria has set a global record as the first country to contextualise the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Mental Health Gap Action…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *