COVID-19 variants in Africa

New COVID-19 variants have emerged in Africa as the continent records a new peak in infections. While virus mutations are not unusual, those that are more infectious are worrisome.

Professor Francisca Mutapi, Professor in Global Health Infection and Immunity, University of Edinburgh, explains the implications of SARS-CoV-2 variants and what African countries can do to respond. Read more >>

Africa CDC Response Activities:

1. African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team  and Africa CDC through the African Union secured the first tranche of 270 million COVID-19 vaccines for the continent. 

2. Africa CDC press briefings 14th January 2021: Dr John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC - Watch the recording >>

COVID-19 vaccines in Africa

While the development and approval of safe and effective vaccines less than a year after the emergence of COVID-19 is a stunning achievement, Africa is in danger of being left behind as countries in other regions strike bilateral deals, driving up prices. While vaccine doses have been administered in 50 mostly high-income countries,in Africa, Guinea is the sole low-income nation to provide vaccines and to date these have only been administered to 25 people. Seychelles, which is a high-income country, is the only one on the continent to start a national vaccination campaign.

Which COVID-19 vaccine is better?

Dr. Samir Gupta explains how the four COVID-19 vaccines now approved in Canada (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen) work and why efficacy rates aren’t the most important number to look at.

Lockdown measures in response to COVID-19 in 9 Sub-Saharan African countries

This study was conducted in nine Sub-Saharan African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Two key points of the articles are:

1. As of September 2020, there is little evidence of lockdown measures flattening the COVID-19 curve in Sub-Saharan Africa.
2. In the 9 Sub-Saharan countries studied, there are signs of COVID-19 lockdown measures harming health by affecting the functioning of the health system and causing social and economic disruption. This raises questions about the appropriateness of lockdown in the Sub-Saharan Africa context.

Read full article>>

Africa CDC web-based tool to better manage public health emergency workforce deployments

The Africa CDC and the International Health Regulations (IHR) Strengthening Project of Public Health England (PHE) launched a web-based tool on 1st September called AVoHC Net. This tool’s aim is to facilitate rapid deployment and improved administration of a standby workforce. AVOHC Net facilitates easy and rapid access to members of the African Volunteer Health Corps (AVoHC), while also facilitates:

• The exchange of relevant information with partners for public health emergency deployments.
• Training of experts on disaster preparedness, management and response.
• Access to country-specific health profiles for risk mapping and vulnerability assessment.

This multidisciplinary workforce consists of over 800 experts in epidemiology, laboratory, logistics, communication, social science, environmental health, animal health, and incident management. Africa CDC took over management of AVoHC in 2017 to enhance its ability to provide surge capacity. Since then, Africa CDC has deployed members of the AVoHC team to Democratic Republic of Congo for an Ebola virus outbreak, as well as supporting response to COVID-19 pandemic in some countries. Read more >>

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