The Commissioner for Social Affairs, Amira Elfadil Mohammed, today rolled out the Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing (PACT) at the African Union Commission headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In his message to participants in the rollout event, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, says that “We have set four goals for PACT: to scale-up testing for COVID-19, to continue training healthcare workers on the continent, to establish a platform for pooled procurement at Africa CDC, and to deploy one million community workers who will help trace contacts of confirmed cases. PACT is a vital component of the continental response to COVID-19 and it is the key to ensuring that we unlock our economies in a safe manner.” Anchored on the African Union Joint Con...
Sourced from iStock. We are living in unprecedented times. COVID-19 has swept throughout the world, and governments globally have taken drastic measures to stop the spread in an attempt to save lives. In February 2020, as African countries watched Asia and Europe begin the implementation of lockdown, a study by Survey54, an automated mobile-led data collection platform, found that approximately 80% of Africans interviewed felt almost immune to the virus as they were yet to hear of any confirmed cases on the continent. This did not last long and by Mid-March, lockdown procedures were initiated across Africa. Despite the swift response, lockdown came with many challenges that drastically affected a continent which heavily depends on the informal sector. With roughly 90% of Africans now conce...
Sourced from Redbubble and iStock. In a rare television broadcast Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, described the COVID-19 pandemic as “Germany’s biggest challenge since the Second World War”. It has indeed proved to be a crisis of global proportion with material implications for the economies and livelihoods of all. Governments across the globe have locked down cities, towns, villages and townships to curb the spread of the virus. Massive fiscal stimuli have been enacted to cushion the economic and humanitarian impact of the pandemic. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have set aside a large quantum of emergency financial support for countries to tap into. African countries have implemented strong containment measures to avoid further spread of COVID-19. For countries in W...