Abuja, Dec. 8 (BNA): Building on the experience of combating the COVID-19 pandemic, African countries are strengthening health systems to prepare for the next health crisis, the World Health Organization’s director for Africa said Thursday.
At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, some 54 countries on the continent of 1.3 billion people lacked the facilities or trained health workers to adequately respond to the health crisis, with some struggling to provide isolation wards in hospitals and intensive care units, Matshidiso Moeti said, WHO Regional Director for Africa, at an online press conference Thursday.
She said that over the course of three years, African countries have stepped up their investments in health infrastructure in the race against the pandemic with the support of global donors.
Across the continent, she said, WHO is working with countries to bolster their capacities by training first responders while also continuing work to strengthen public health institutions and emergency operations.
Moeti added that one of the “most dramatic outcomes of the struggle” Africa has faced in obtaining COVID-19 vaccines is that some countries on the continent are now developing their capacities to produce those key tools locally.
In The Gambia, as in many countries across Africa, the pandemic has been “very difficult” for many health systems, but it has “opened all of our eyes to see where the gaps are,” said Ahmadu Lamine Samateh, Gambian Minister of Health.
Samateh has called for a global support system that will provide more assistance and resources to countries facing challenges, according to the AP.
Even as Africa continues to face gaps in COVID-19 vaccines, Moeti, director of the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa, warned that more work needed to be done to preserve gains from the pandemic response.
“As we move into 2023, it is time to take COVID-19 out of emergency response mode and integrate it into routine health care,” Moeti said.
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