The West African Health Organization (WAHO) has distributed over 30,000 diagnostic test kits to member nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), WAHO announced on its official website.
WAHO said the Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly evolving in the ECOWAS region since the first case was reported from Lagos, Nigeria, on 27 February, 2020.
As at 31 March 2020, a total of 1,077 new confirmed cases and 31 deaths have been reported across all 15 Member States.
Sierra Leone was the last country in the ECOWAS region to be affected and reported a confirmed Covid-19 case on 31 March 2020.
WAHO revealed that many States have received their allocation of diagnostic kits, but all the other support are expected to be delivered to the countries by DHL between 30 March and 7 April.
“We have placed orders for more diagnostic test kits and PPEs which we expect to arrive within the next 2 weeks. In addition, we are sourcing for ventilators which are equipment for supporting the breathing of severely ill patients in hospitals to distribute to countries. All these efforts are to supplement what individual countries are doing by themselves,” WAHO said.
The statement added: “As the Institution designated by the highest authorities of ECOWAS to lead the coordination, collaboration and communication in the region with regards to Covid-19 pandemic, WAHO has been very active in bringing together Member States to adopt a regional approach to the pandemic and to support them as necessary.”
According to WAHO, on 14 February 2020, a few days after the declaration by WHO of Covid-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, WAHO convened an emergency meeting of the Ministers of Health of ECOWAS on preparedness and response to the outbreak of Covid-19, the first region in Africa to do so.
The statement added that the meeting agreed on a unified regional approach to Covid-19, and held media briefings in Bamako, Mali on 14 February 2020 and in Abuja, Nigeria, on 17 February 2020.
“WAHO immediately strengthened the capacity of all 15 member states to test for Covid-19 through a regional laboratory training and distribution of the first batch of diagnostic kits to all member states.
“We then conducted several other regional trainings on risk communication, emergency operations, and a simulation exercise for the regional rapid response teams. In all the 15 ECOWAS Member States, several actors including health workers are being mobilized to save lives.
“However, there continues to be the challenge of securing sufficient materials given the disruption in global supply chains. This is something WAHO is tackling through its partnership with other agencies and bodies to ensure we never run out of stock in the region,” the statement pointed out.
The statement also said other key actions WAHO is taking to fight this Covid-19 pandemic is the development of Operational Guides for the fight against Covid-19 pandemic in the ECOWAS region; and an online training for healthcare workers on the use of these guides. The online training starts in the week of 6-12 April 2020.
However, the most important tool in this fight is the behavior of every citizen. It is of utmost importance that the citizens heed the information on how to protect themselves and their loved ones, and so stop the spread of the pandemic in their own community.