BY ODIMMEGWA JOHNPETER, ABUJA
Director General of the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO), Professor Stanley Okolo has appealed to Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Members of Parliament to work closely in defeating the global COVID 19 pandemic because according to him, only regional solidarity will help us defeat the disease in the region.
Professor Okolo made this passionate appeal whilst doing his presentation on the “Status of COVID-19 Pandemic in the ECOWAS region and its potential impact on development activities,” during the ongoing ECOWAS Parliament Joint Committee meeting in Bissau, Republic of Guinea Bissau.
During his presentation, the WAHO head said West Africa is currently battling with other outbreaks such as Lassa Fever, Cholera, Measles etc but that what makes COVID 19 more worrisome is its nature as it has been described as a Global Pandemic.
The WAHO DG furthered that resulting from the coordination they have had across the ECOWAS Region during this COVID 19 pandemic, they have been able to ascertain the capacity of the health system of every member state.
Thus, the WAHO Chief said only strong solidarity will enable West Africa region defeat the adverse effect of COVID 19 pandemic in our social and economic activities. He said this is because some countries have strong capacity to fight the disease, whilst others have very fragile and weak health system.
As a way of breakdown on the response of WAHO so far, the DG said as at Monday, November 9, 2020, West Africa has recorded 194,705 (one hundred and ninety four thousand seven hundred and five) COVID 19 cases with a death rate of 2,798 (two thousand seven hundred and ninety eight) amounting to 1.44% of all reported cases. He however expressed optimism of the recovery rate, which he said stands at 93.9%.
As an organization, the WAHO Chief said they rolled out regional support activities. These activities involve trainings, coordination and advisory, critical medical supplies and financial supports to all ECOWAS member states.
Furthermore, on the impact of COVID 19 on nutrition and food system, Professor Okolo said border closure, curfew, market closure and limited internal movement impact key value chains in the region and threaten livelihoods. He said “instability in both local and global food markets is causing a disruption to food supply, availability and demand.”
Therefore, he called on ECOWAS Parliamentarians to work with political parties/religious leaders to prevent surge of cases in upcoming elections, support ECOWAS guidelines for cross-border travel & reinforcement of border capacities, support risk communication efforts and champion community engagement and allocate funds for vaccines efforts.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/to-defeat-covid-19-waho-dg-appeals-for-regional-solidarity/
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