Coronavirus: SADC needs to 'scale up its coordinated response' to pandemic

25 Avril 2020

Harare, Zimbabwe, April 25 (Infosplusgabon) - Zimbabwe research and advocacy group, the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), says as the Southern African Development Authority (SADC) countries are inter-related, a more precise regional response is needed to tackle the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

Currently, only two countries in the 16-nation regional bloc have not reported any COVID-19 cases - Comoros and Lesotho.

“It is obvious that no country in SADC will choose not to apply a control strategy, and all of them are. This would be the height of irresponsibility, and no neighbouring country would accept this: SADC countries are far too inter-related and there needs to be a concerted regional response given the common problems of food insecurity and porous borders,” said RAU, in its new report titled ‘Covid-19 and SADC countries: Enhanced Social Distancing is the only option’.

“South Africa seems to have the most developed strategy at present, and probably has the best resources for tackling Covid-19. There may be much for all to learn from the South African strategy.  The choice of intervention seems clear from the modelled data.”

Regionally, SADC countries account for 39 percent of all African cases, but this is largely due to the number of cases in South Africa that makes up 71 percent of all SADC cases, according to statistics from the World Health Organization.

In SADC, the top five countries with confirmed COVID-19 cases are South Africa had 3,635 cases with 65 deaths, Democratic Republic of Congo (359 cases and 25 deaths), Mauritius (329 cases and nine deaths), Tanzania (285 cases and 10 deaths), Zambia (74 cases and three deaths), and Mozambique (41 cases and zero deaths).

According to SADC bloc’s latest ‘Regional Response to COVID-19 An Analysis of the Regional Situation and Impact’, report released on 22 April 22, COVID-19's impact on the bloc is on public health, food and nutrition security, education, gender and gender based violence, and manufacturing.

SADC estimated 14 percent of patients with COVID-19 will require hospitalization and 5 percent intensive care treatment.

RAU said lowering the burden on health systems and health personnel would be crucial in most SADC countries.

The report from SADC showed that this situation will require that all care centres be equipped with ventilator/life support machine, pulse oximeters, functioning oxygen systems and disposable, single-use, oxygen-delivering interfaces.

“All this will exert pressure on the health service delivery, already under heavy strain in many African countries, let alone SADC Member States,” SADC said.

In terms of food security, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a record 45 million people were already estimated to be food insecure in the SADC region due to continued drought like conditions.

Now, with the COVID-19 outbreak,  it has had debilitating impacts on livelihoods which is expected to exacerbate the situation, eroding community coping capacities and deepen food and nutrition insecurity of vulnerable households and individuals.

As a result, SADC expects that number vulnerable people to increase due to, among others, loss of informal sources of income emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic.

For education, SADC said schools and tertiary institutions have been closed as a result of COVID-19, thereby affecting education and learning on an ongoing basis during this period.

Just this week, Zimbabwe's permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting services, Ndabaningi Mangwana, suggested that the country's schools may open in August and go all the way to end of December.

Originally, primary and tertiary schools were supposed to be opened next month.

Sadly, while COVID-19 is affecting the SADC region, cases of abuse against women are also rising.

“With the lockdown and stay-at-home measures, women that have been in abusive relationships are now forced to be at home with their abusers for a prolonged period, making it difficult for them to reach out for help due to the presence of the abusive partner at home,” SADC said.

“Social distancing in itself makes it difficult for victims to reach out to their usual support systems, particularly, friends and other family members. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has made reporting of abuses harder due to the disruption of public services and limited access to communication facilities such as phones and helplines.”

Lastly, COVID-19 has disrupted the small scale manufacturing and informal sector in the SADC region with both local and export demand for manufactured goods likely to reduce as a consequence of the pandemic.

This comes as the SADC region is a major supplier of precious metals and, as a result of COVID-19, the prices of these metals used for industrial applications are on the decline.

“Similarly, prices of base metals key for industrialization such as copper, aluminium, chrome and manganese have all weakened due to lower Chinese demand as China consumes about 45% of metallic minerals produced worldwide,” SADC said.

“The supply chain disruption stemming primarily from the lockdown of factories across China, United States and the European Union poses the most immediate and prominent risk for manufacturers in the SADC region.”

In light of these challenges, the SADC bloc has already started working on coordinated response to combat COVID-19, albeit, a limited one.

One measure includes adopting the SADC Guidelines on Harmonization and Facilitation of Movement of Essential goods and services across borders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Member States are using the guidelines and aligning them with national laws and procedures.

“In addition, other stakeholders such as SADC Business Council, Private Sector Transport Operators and Corridor Management Institutions, among others, are aligning the regional guidelines with their own internal procedures,” SADC said.

Further, the Regional Transport Transit Facilitation Cell has finalised its short-term action plan, and co-opted the World Food Programme on the Cell to address the humanitarian dimensions of the pandemic.

SADC and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation have also put together an action plan on ensuring continuity of learning in the context of COVID-19.

The SADC Secretariat is also engaging with the African Development Bank and the German government through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, a German development agency, to mobilise resources.

These resources will be used for acquiring essential medicines, medical supplies and medical equipment, especially testing kits, personal protective, equipment and ventilators to combat the coronavirus.

“The SADC Secretariat is in the process of collecting information from member states on national pharmaceutical manufacturers to assist in developing the regional database of pharmaceutical manufacturers in the SADC region,” SADC said.

SADC added that it was also in the process of compiling a consolidated list of member states needed in relation to essential medicines, medical supplies and equipment to effectively respond to COVID-19.

RAU concluded its report by stating that: “Although it does not appear from the data on SADC countries that either Mitigation or Enhanced Mitigation may have differential effects on reducing infections, it is also clear that Enhanced Mitigation will have a better effect in reducing deaths and in lowering the burden on the health systems of the countries in SADC”.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/ASD/GABON2020

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