PINATUNAYAN ng coronavirus pandemic ang halaga ng pamumuhunan sa sistemang pangkalusugan na magpapaunlad sa kahandaan patungong pribensyon at pagkontrol ng mga outbreak, pahayag ng World Health Organization.

Ito ang naging komento ni WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, sa isang virtual session para sa 70th WHO Regional Committee for Africa.

Sa pagpupulong, tinalakay ni WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, kasama ang mga African health ministers at stakeholders ang mga isyung pankalusugan sa Africa, kabilang ang coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Covid-19 has proven once again the importance of investing in health systems, enhancing equitable access to care, improving readiness to prevent and control outbreaks... and enabling communities to play their role in realizing better health,” pahayag ni Moeti.

“More than 100,000 health workers have been trained in surveillance, case management and infection prevention and control, and millions of items of essential supplies have been shipped and replenished.

“The concerted actions of countries, with support from WHO and other partners, have averted the catastrophe foretold in early projections of how this virus would affect the African Region,” dagdag pa niya.

Samantala, sinabi ni Tedros, na dumoble ang bilang ng kaso ng virus sa loob lamang ng anim na linggo.

“Since the earliest days of the pandemic, the WHO has been working round the clock at all three levels to support you, our African member states,” saad pa ng WHO chief.

GLOBAL HEALTH SOLIDARITY

Binigyang-diin naman ni Amira Elfadil, commissioner ng African Union social affairs, na binuhay ng nagaganap na pandemya ang pangangailangan para sa global health solidarity at partnerships, hupang makarating sa isang kolektibong at tiyak na solusyon na magpapaunlad sa seguridad at kaligtasan ng kalusugan ng publiko sa mundo.

Hinikayat naman ni Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo, health minister ng Republic of Congo, ang Africa Region “[to] continue and intensify its mobilization in solidarity to produce inputs and other protective materials, share experiences and research results, and pool resources for screening and care.”

Naniniwala si Moustafa Mijiyawa, Togolese health minister, na malaki at mapanira ang epekto sa ekonomiya at lipunan ng pandemya.

“Yet, the momentum of collaboration and international solidarity generated by Covid-19 rightly reminds us of our common destiny,” dagdag pa niya Mijiyawa.

Halos 1.2 milyon na ang kaso ng coronavirus sa Africa habang halos umabot na rin sa 28,000 ang death toll kasama ng 921,783 recoveries, ayon sa Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).