Plans for Prevention

Africa CDC is playing a key role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 on the continent

- Ge Lijun & Li Kaizhi

As COVID-19 spreads across the continent, African countries have adopted many prevention and control measures, such as travel restrictions and border closures. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has played an important role in the fight against COVID-19 in Africa.

In early April, Wang Xiaochun, a professor of epidemiology and senior advisor for disease control at the Africa CDC, talked to ChinAfrica about the work Africa CDC has done on prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa, the challenges the continent faces in fighting the epidemic, and the measures he has recommended. An excerpt of his views follows:

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In February, the Africa CDC, at the request of the African Union (AU), formulated a plan for Africa to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic. In order to implement this plan, two temporary work groups have been established within the Africa CDC. One is Africa Task Force for Coronavirus to deal with COVID-19 in Africa, which is mainly responsible for six tasks: surveillance, infection prevention and control, clinical management, laboratory diagnosis, risk communication, supply chain and medical supplies procurement. The other one is the Africa CDC’s Incident Management System, which links the AU member countries and provides weekly information on the epidemic. On February 22, an emergency meeting of African health ministers on COVID-19, coordinated by the Africa CDC, was convened to work out strategies for responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. A joint declaration on Africa’s response was issued after the meeting.

The Africa CDC has developed a detailed plan to combat the epidemic, focusing mainly on containing the spread of the virus, fatalities and social unrest caused by the epidemic, along with a detailed budget.