Abstract
The ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 has spread rapidly to all countries of the world. Africa is particularly predisposed to an escalation of the pandemic and its negative impact given its weak economy and health systems. In addition, inadequate access to the social determinants of health such as water and sanitation and socio-cultural attributes may constrain the implementation of critical preventive measures such as hand washing and social distancing on the continent.Given these facts, the continent needs to focus on targeted and high impact prevention and control strategies and interventions which could break the chain of transmission quickly. We conclude that the available body of scientific evidence on the coronavirus disease 2019 holds the key to the development of such strategies and interventions.Going forward, we recommend that the African research community should scale up research to provide scientific evidence for a better characterization of the epidemiology, transmission dynamics, prevention and control of the virus on the continent.
Highlights
The ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has severely impacted global health, economy and politics in different patterns in various continents
We review the relevant scientific literatures on the COVID-19 pandemic, and synthesize the relevant evidence that could potentially change the game in Africa’s fight against the disease; we propose strategic recommendations for prevention and control of COVID-19 transmission in the Africa continent
African countries should learn from this experience and implement available guidance from World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure that essential health services are maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic during lockdowns to reduce excess mortality from other preventable diseases [40,41,42]
Summary
The ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has severely impacted global health, economy and politics in different patterns in various continents. Given the weak health system in most African countries, mounting timely and robust responses to the COVID-19 pandemic will be a big challenge the need to focus on targeted and high impact prevention and control interventions that could break the chain of transmission quickly.
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