New Report: Responding to COVID-19 in Africa
As the world battles new COVID-19 variants and supply of vaccines remains critically low in Africa, African Union Member States must find the balance between minimizing threats from COVID-19 and the indirect burdens of public health measures, including income loss, food insecurity, and disrupted access to essential medical services.
New findings from a Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC) report show that these problems remain substantial across the African continent: 81% of respondents reported challenges accessing food, 77% reported experiencing income loss and 42% reported missing medical visits. The report calls for targeted public health measures for high-risk populations, increased surveillance in light of new variants and scaled-up vaccine supply from the global community to control the pandemic in Africa.