By Hassan Zaggi
Despite the significant drop in the number of new cases of COVID-19 in many countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO), has called for caution and consideration of the risk involve in the move by some countries to reopen their economies and resume social life.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, gave the advice at a virtual press conference on Thursday.
She stated that the WHO has provided clear guidance to countries on how to implement and adjust public health and social measures in different situations and contexts as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves.
These guidelines recommend that countries take a comprehensive approach which weigh the risks and anticipated benefits when determining whether to relax measures.
Countries, she stressed, should take into consideration the capacity of health systems, the immunity of the population to COVID-19, and the countries’ socio-economic priorities. If measures are relaxed, there should be a system in place for them to be quickly reinstated in the event of a deterioration of the situation.
Additionally, as countries lift or adjust the public health measures, it is critical to ensure that systems are in place to closely monitor the infection trends, allow timely detection and treatment as well as swiftly respond to the emergence of new variants of concern.
While noting that contact tracing is a key strategy for curbing the spread of the virus and reducing mortality, the WHO Chief disclosed that in August 2020, 23 out of 54 countries on the continent were conducting comprehensive contact tracing, which entails listing and following all the contacts of a confirmed case.
With the evolution of the pandemic, countries have moved towards prioritized contact tracing, where only contacts at high risk of infection or falling severely ill are followed. Dr. Moeti revealed that based on analysis of open-source data, WHO finds that by 15 March 2022, 13 countries were conducting comprehensive surveillance, while 19 countries were carrying out prioritized contact tracing. 22 African countries were no longer carrying out any kind of contact tracing.
“It is a matter of concern that nearly half of all countries in Africa have stopped tracing the contacts of cases.
“This, along with robust testing, is the backbone of any pandemic response. Without this critical information, it is difficult to track the spread of the virus and identify new COVID-19 hotspots that may be caused by known or emerging variants,” Dr Moeti said.
According to her, aside from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and antigen rapid diagnostic tests, WHO is also recommending self-testing using antigen-detection rapid tests to expand access to diagnostics and has published guidelines.
While COVID-19 cases have declined across the continent since the peak of the Omicron-driven fourth wave in early January 2022, vaccination coverage remains far behind the rest of the world. About 201 million people or 15.6% of the population are fully vaccinated compared with the global average of 57%.
Dr. Moeti said: “For more than two years, the pandemic has maintained a painful stranglehold on our lives, and the imperative for countries to revive economies and livelihoods is understandable.
“However, the pandemic isn’t over yet and the preventive measures should be eased cautiously with health authorities weighing the risks against the anticipated benefits.
“Lifting the public health measures does not mean lifting the foot off the pedal of pandemic vigilance.”
