Collective Action

How the AU plans to combat the coronavirus pandemic on the continent

- Benard Ayieko

At the turn of the new decade months ago, the world looked forward to a new year with hope and optimism. That sentiment was soon shattered, however, as the dark cloud of the novel coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Since then, at the time of writing, World Health Organization (WHO) figures show there have been more than 2 million cases with 133,732 fatalities and 451,481 recoveries. These figures are drawn from 212 countries, areas or territories including Africa. To date, only the Comoros and Lesotho have not reported any COVID-19 case in Africa, but this is expected to change in the months ahead as the disease knows no borders.

AU plan

While the coronavirus was spreading across Chinese cities, the rest of the world watched with bated breath at the measures that the Chinese Government was taking to contain its spread. Wuhan was quickly put on a lockdown, which was lifted after 76 days.

COVID-19 has adversely affected the global community not only in matters of health, but also in terms of international trade, macroeconomic indicators, financial markets, among others. Alarmed by the potential of the global economy grinding to a halt because of COVID-19, African leaders caucusing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in February this year, set the ball rolling by recommending that the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) activate its Emergency Operations Center and its Incident Management System.