By Our Correspondent,
ARUSHA Tanzania
The East African
Community (EAC) Secretariat is in the process of deploying mobile laboratories
and coronavirus test kits to all partner states in response to the global
pandemic.
According to
a communique from the EAC Secretariat, each partner state will receive a four
wheel drive vehicle fitted with laboratory and ICT equipment.
The
deployment will also include all the necessary consumables for a fully
functional laboratory with the capacity to conduct tests for Ebola and the
coronavirus in addition to other pathogens.
The
secretariat will also put in place a Regional Coordination Committee (RCC) with
risk communication and community engagement, policy and guidelines, finance and
logistics, and data and statistics sub-committees to oversee the regional
COVID–19 response.
According to
the communique the committee has already set in motion a number of activities
to secure the EAC organs and institutions, and support partner states in
battling the virus.
Regional
health ministers are set to on Tuesday March 24, to discuss the COVID-19
pandemic and its containment strategies.
Most EAC
partner states have implemented strategies to contain the outbreak such as the
suspension of all face to face meetings, closure of all schools and tertiary
training institutions, closure of their respective air space and borders as
well as implementation of quarantine (mandatory or otherwise) on arrival for
travellers from high risk countries due to the outbreak.
In EAC
Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda have reported cases of coronavirus.
The Burundi
and South Sudan are yet to report any cases.
Two
countries neighbouring the EAC; Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia have
also confirmed cases.
This has
forced EAC to suspend all meetings. - Africa
No comments:
Post a Comment