Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Good morning, good afternoon, bonjour and welcome to all the journalists and colleagues joining this press conference. Today we will look at the twin challenges of Ebola and COVID-19 that the African Region is facing.
I am pleased to be joined by Dr Mohamed Lamine Yansané, Senior adviser to the Minister of Health in Guinea, bonjour et bienvenue Dr Yansané, where there is an outbreak of Ebola which was recently detected, and by Dr Ngonda Saasa, who is the Head of Disease Control at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zambia, who will speak about how the new variants are affecting the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zambia.
On the African continent, we have more than 3.7 million COVID-19 cases that have been reported (including 77,000 new cases in the past week) and 99,000 people tragically have lost their lives since the start of this pandemic. In the past two months we have seen a downward trend in some of the most-affected countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and Tunisia. However, in several countries, including Zambia, Togo, South Sudan, Senegal and Ghana, the epidemic curve is still trending upwards.
On Monday WHO listed the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use. This is a significant step towards the deployment of 90 million doses of this vaccine that have been allocated to African countries through the COVAX facility, as well as doses procured through other sources.
Yesterday we held a briefing with Ministers of Health in the African Region to discuss the next steps, so that vaccine manufacturers can schedule shipment dates to countries. Our teams are on the ground working with Governments to expedite these processes so that the vaccines can be deployed as soon as possible. Countries now need to work out their operational planning in detail to strengthen their readiness at every delivery level, to anticipate bottlenecks, and to mobilize all the capacities needed for the vaccine rollout.
New variants of viruses occur over time, and knowing which ones are circulating helps to inform the public health response, including vaccination strategies in countries. So, we are also building sequencing capacities to detect different variants. Since December 2020, there has been a 50% increase in sequences produced in African countries. This is a priority area for us, to ensure that all African countries are equipped to carry out gene sequence locally or to send samples to reference laboratories.
Turning then to the Ebola outbreaks that were declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 7 February and in Guinea on 14 February. These outbreaks are a reminder of the need to deal with other outbreaks and continue to deliver health services, while also responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Guinea, the outbreak started in Gouécké in N'Zerekore after a nurse, who had symptoms suggestive of Ebola, passed away. Five of her family members and a traditional practitioner that she visited, then fell ill, and four of these individuals have sadly died. One symptomatic person consulted several health facilities and then travelled by taxi to the capital, Conakry. So far, 290 contacts have been identified and 94% have been seen. We will be hearing more of this from Dr Yansané.
WHO is scaling-up our support to the response efforts, building on past lessons and reconnecting with past networks and capacities from the West Africa epidemic which happened between 2014 and 2016. Countries in West Africa now have established emergency operations centres, active rapid response teams, and health-care workers experienced in vaccination, therapeutics, and infection prevention and control practices.
The response to Ebola and COVID-19 can be mutually reinforcing and produce synergies by building on these already established structures, guidelines, and good practices, particularly around coordination, engaging with communities and leadership. There are also common preventive measures like physical distancing for COVID-19 and “don’t touch” messages for Ebola, as well as the importance of hand hygiene for both.
We expect to have more than 100 national and international experts on the ground by the end of the month. Thirty vaccination experts have already been mobilized locally and are ready to deploy as soon as the Ebola vaccines arrive in Guinea. Today more than 11,000 vaccine doses are being prepared in Geneva for deployment to Guinea and are expected to arrive over the weekend. In addition, more than 8600 doses will be shipped from the USA.
WHO has released 1.25 million US dollars to support the response in Guinea and to shore-up readiness in six neighbouring countries. Within the epicentre of the outbreak in a border area, the sub-region is on high alert and authorities are reinforcing public health measures, including surveillance, to quickly respond to possible cross-border infections.
Our collective quick action is crucial to avert an uncontrolled spread of Ebola amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has already pushed health workers and health facilities to the edge.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so far there are four confirmed Ebola cases, including two deaths that are epidemiologically linked. WHO already has around 20 experts on the ground supporting national and provincial health authorities. Eight thousand vaccine doses were still available in the country at the end of the most recent Ebola outbreak and the vaccination of people at high risk was officially launched in Butembo on Monday. So far nearly 70 people have been vaccinated against Ebola. The quick roll-out of vaccines is a testament to the enormous local capacity built in the previous outbreaks by the government, WHO and partners.
I thank you once again for joining us today and I look forward very much to our conversation.