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Add to Preferred SourcesThe South African COVID-19 response will soon be bolstered by a surge team of health experts from the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO will be deploying 43 experts from various fields to support the COVID-19 outbreak response management. The first 17 health expects will include key expertise in epidemiology, surveillance, case management, infection, prevention and control, procurement, as well as community mobilization and health education. Among them is Dr. David Heymann, a seasoned infectious disease epidemiologist, and public health expert, who was at one-time Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment at WHO. He headed the response to the SARS epidemic in 2003, working with his team to mediate international efforts to halt the pandemic.
With South Africa now among the top five of the world’s most affected countries, it is critical to strengthen its COVID-19 response.
“At this time when the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa is spreading rapidly, it is important that we work together to intensify our fight against the virus,” said Dr. Owen Kaluwa, WHO Representative for South Africa. “For this reason, WHO is ramping up support to complement national and provincial efforts to scale-up the response. Our collective efforts are necessary to identify cases, isolate and provide care, follow up contacts, and fully implement physical distancing and other key public health measures. In this way, we will minimize the spread and impact of COVID19.”
WHO will be primarily responsible for funding the international surge team with South Africa largely being responsible for providing administrative resources for smooth initiation and integration of the partnership.
The delegation will be required to complete an initial period of quarantine and testing before being cleared for deployment in the country. They will be initiated into the current national health efforts and informed on how the National Department of Health is supporting provincial COVID-19 programmes. Then they will be deployed in the national department and the following provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal, and Mpumalanga.
The surge team is expected to contribute to national efforts in key response areas including surveillance and streamlining of epidemiological systems and WHO global COVID-19 response guidelines, improved case management, leading to a reduced hospital burden and increased community buy-in resulting in greater compliance to public health measures.
Original source: WHO
Published on 5 August 2020