South Africa Ramps Up Response to COVID-19
Densely populated slums like this one near Johannesburg make South Africa’s poor especially vulnerable to COVID-19. (Wikimedia Commons)
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a three-week national lockdown on March 27, which is being enforced by the military. Ramaphosa made this decision because South Africa passed the threshold of 900 confirmed COVID-19 cases, reports NPR.
In an interview conducted by Berkeley News, University of California, Berkeley economist Edward Miguel doubted the ability of African governments to respond to the spread of COVID-19. He cited concerns with “low-capacity governments, a lack of health facilities, and a risk that health providers will come down ill.”
South Africa has taken steps to curb the spread of COVID-19. The country has implemented harsh and thorough restrictions, including travel bans and border closures which began in mid-March, according to Quartz Africa. As reported by US News and World Report, South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced that medical teams would be sent to townships across the country to test people for COVID-19. Mkhize explained, “we are targeting those [townships] where we want to deal with already identified cases of positive people or contacts.”
However, Ramaphosa’s COVID-19 response has been marked by violence. According to a report by the Guardian, police fired rubber bullets at a crowd assembled outside a grocery store on the second day of the lockdown. Emily Ndemande, a local worker, told the Guardian, “We are staying at home now. Before we were going to the shops, but the soldiers are beating people so everyone is inside now.”
Nevertheless, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed support for Ramaphosa’s heightened COVID-19 response, tweeting, “I thank President Cyril Ramaphosa for his leadership and South Africa’s all-of-government and all-of-society COVID-19 response with citizens doing their best to adhere to the measures taken to contain the coronavirus.”
Despite current efforts, the country faces considerable challenges to its COVID-19 response. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa places additional strain on healthcare infrastructure and leaves a large portion of the population particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Professor Glenda Gray of the South African Medical Research Council explained to France24 that “the concern is that if you do not have a good immune system, your ability to ward off this infection could be compromised.”
“Individuals living with HIV have an eight-fold greater burden of hospitalization for pneumonia due to influenza virus, and a three-fold higher case fatality risk,” according to a statement released by the Academy of Science in South Africa.
South African researchers are working with the WHO to conduct COVID-19 treatment trials, which are set to begin in mid-April, reports Daily Maverick. The efforts of healthcare workers and researchers to limit the consequences of COVID-19 has continued in spite of the immense danger to their persons. A world-renowned South African HIV expert, Gita Ramjee, passed away after returning from a presentation she gave in London, reports BBC.
“We have indeed lost a champion in the fight against the HIV epidemic, ironically at the hands of this global pandemic,” said South African Deputy President David Mabuza in a statement on Ramjee’s passing.