As COVID-19 cases top 100 000 in Africa, WHO, with offices in every country on the African continent, is working closely with the Africa Centres for Disease Control, Ministries of Health, United Nations agencies and other partners to support the scale-up of the response through coordination, technical expertise, the provision of much needed medical supplies and assisting with data collection and analysis.
WHO has trained more than 7000 health workers in the region, including 1000 district health teams to support the decentralization of the response. So far, more than 225 experts have been deployed to over 39 countries in Africa and over 900 staff have been repurposed at the regional and country level to support the response.
Such close, intensive support is critical: a new modelling study by WHO predicts that if containment measures fail, even with a lower number of cases requiring hospitalization than elsewhere, the medical capacity in much of Africa would be overwhelmed.
There is a need to expand testing capacity, provide additional test kits, and to protect health workers who come into contact with suspected and confirmed cases.
Despite global shortages, WHO is working hard to prioritize the delivery of testing kits and personal protective equipment to low- and middle-income countries that have the most vulnerable populations, based on the number of cases reported.