Africa - Outbreak Brief #10: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic

Africa CDC Response:

General activities

1. Africa CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center and its Incident Management System (IMS) for the COVID-19 outbreak on 27 January 2020. Africa CDC has developed its third Incident Action Plan that covers the period between 16 March to 15 April 2020.
2. The Africa Union Ministers of Health gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 22 February for an emergency COVID-19 meeting where they agreed upon a joint continental strategy and guidance for assessment, movement restrictions, and monitoring of people at risk for COVID-19, including people being repatriated from China.
3. Africa CDC is holding weekly updates with national public health institutes in Member States and has formed working groups for high priority areas of coronavirus control, including: surveillance; laboratory diagnosis; infection prevention and control; clinical care; and risk communication.
4. Three experts each have been deployed to Cameroon and Nigeria and to support COVID- 19 outbreak response efforts.
5. Response simulation exercises (i.e., ‘table top’ exercises for high-level coordination) are being initiated, including an initial simulation conducted with a group of ~10 West African Countries in partnership with WAHO.
6. Africa CDC briefs the permanent council (PRC) and Ambassadors from non-AU states on COVID-19 situation in Africa, Africa CDC responsive activities and recommendation.
7. Africa CDC is working to procure emergency medical equipment stockpiles including diagnostics (over 6,000 test kits), PPE, thermal scanners and other critical equipment that can be used to rapidly equip countries in the event of rapid onset of cases.
8. Twenty-four volunteers have been recruited to support various response activities with more in-process of recruitment.

9.    Africa CDC gave an orientation to the African Union Commission staff on the epidemiological situation, Africa CDC efforts, and the precautions that staff members should take to prevent themselves and others from getting infected by COVID-19. A social distancing policy was issued by the African Union Commission to avoid large gatherings and meetings in the AUC facilities.

Surveillance

10. Africa CDC collaborated with the World Health Organization on 22 February 2020 to train in-coming analysts in event-based surveillance using the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources platform. These headquarters will be working closely with the Regional Collaborating Centres and Member States to track and verify COVID-19 related events, providing critical information to inform Member States' response and control efforts.
11. Africa CDC in collaboration with WHO provided two Training of Trainers events for participants from 18 countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Zambia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia to enhance surveillance at points of entry for COVID-19. Additional training is planned for March and April targeting the remaining countries in Africa.

12. Africa CDC in collaboration with the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be training 20 countries in event-based surveillance for COVID-19 starting in March 2020. The first training for 7 countries was held in Kampala, Uganda on 2-4 March 2020.
13. Africa CDC supported training of airport staff from the Southern and East African regions, the training was hosted by South African Civil Aviation Authority and ICAO, on preparedness for COVID-19 in the aviation industry. More than 200 participants from 10 Member States (Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Eswatini, Ethiopia and Namibia) were trained.

Laboratory

14. Ethiopian PM Abiy-Jack Ma & Alibaba Foundations initiative provided more than 1 million PCR detection kits to 54 Member States. Africa CDC is coordinating the delivery of the kits to Member States with the Government of Ethiopia, the Foundation and World Food Program.
15. Africa CDC distributed 36,000 tests (TIB Molbiol, German) to 30 Member States.
16. In collaboration with ASLM, a community of practice (online training program) has been arranged for more than 40 laboratories (25 and 30 March 2020).
17. Shipment of ONT equipment and reagents has started to build capacity of seven Member States. Online training will be organized once shipment is completed.
18. Africa CDC is working with other vendors (Roche, Abbott and Cepheid) for alternative testing strategies to expand testing of COVID-19.
19. Supply shortage (viral transport media, swabs and extraction kits) are now the main challenges to expand the testing. Africa CDC is looking for all possible sources for these items and will update the Member States when items are available.

Healthcare Preparedness

20. Africa CDC initiated a continent-wide network of clinicians which met for the first time on 9 March 2020, with a webinar that included ~230 clinicians from across the continent. The next webinar is scheduled for 19 March 2020.
21. Africa CDC initiated design of an online portal with training materials via online courses, online case studies, and social media vignettes to support evidence-based care of COVID-19 patients.

Risk Communication

22. Africa CDC conducted training on risk communication for public health communication officers of 27 countries to manage public information flow for COVID-19 and other public health emergencies.
23. Risk communication training is planned for other countries as soon as the travel restrictions are lifted.