BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
It is clear that COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the health, economy and sociopolitical dynamics of every nation; and Ethiopia is no exception.
The virus puts a particular strain on Ethiopia’s economy and health-care system—the latter which is not in a position to withstand the burden of COVID-19. Ethiopia’s strategy for combating COVID-19 relies on the unwavering solidarity exhibited among stakeholders and multispectral task teams and its agile approach.
The commitment of the government to ensure continuity of essential health, economic, and social services without initiating complete lockdown measures is also expected to reduce the impact of the pandemic.
Following the first case report, Ethiopia had put in place systems protocols to be implemented on the ground, as well engaged in tightening up surveillance, diagnosis, infection prevention and control, epidemic response coordination and public health education to swiftly detect cases and limit widespread infections.
The effort though has shown significant results, it seems to getting hard to sustain in putting the safety rules at the grass roots, to encourage them to practice in their daily life.
As Ethiopian Health Minister Dr. Lia Kebede underlined last week, Ethiopia is working to curb the spread of the pandemic attaching to the protocols of the Ministry and WHO.
However, these days, we are witnessing that the communities and some institutions are losing commitments to check its applicability on the ground.
Combined with other factors, the negligence is leading to COVID-19 cases surge and an increment in the number of patients entering into critical care unit and demand for mechanical breathing machines in the health facilities.
Thus, it is high time to work diligently to mitigate the spread of the virus, as the case is going up because of the negligence of the communities- for not attach to the guidelines and safety rules the Ministry and WHO had introduced, she remarked.
The number of daily COVID- 19 cases coming from Addis Ababa is increasing alarmingly. “To be specific, among the cases coming from the city, at the average 305 will fall to critical stages”, she noted.
Patients breathing with the support of mechanical ventilation are getting 45 percent and over 59 percent of fellow citizens lost their lives.
She noted that unless concerted efforts are exerted, the number of critical patients who demand the mechanical breathing machine could be above the capacity of the nation to address.
In her piece entitled “Solidarity, Agility and Continuity: Three Cornerstones of Ethiopia’s COVID-19 Response” and posted on Think Global page, Dr. Lia Tadesse discussed how the governance of COVID-19 should be dealt with.
According to her, the ability to adapt and course- correct are pivotal principles in overcoming this pandemic. This requires normalizing the frequent revisiting and modifying of strategy.
The strategies of lab expansion, facility readiness and utilization, quarantine management, and non-pharmaceutical interventions are the result of the agile nature of our approach in responding to COVID-19 pandemic. “We share what we know with the public and provide briefs on tools that appear vague. Agility remains a prominent feature of Ethiopia’s response to COVID-19, in addition to solidarity.”
The continuity of essential services for lives and livelihoods is the primary goal in responding to COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In Ethiopia, as elsewhere, lives and livelihoods are interrelated. Lives cannot be saved without saving livelihoods.
Preventing deaths from COVID-19 should not come at the cost of deaths from other preventable illnesses, starvation, or social unrest that may arise from loss of livelihood. As such, Ethiopia’s COVID-19 response is mindful of business continuity in the health, economy, and other vital sectors.
In April, guidelines on continuity of essential services for major public health programs and emergency management were released and disseminated to regions. This was followed by the deployment of technical mentors and supervisors, alongside weekly and monthly monitoring of trends in morbidity and mortality.
Weekly reflection on both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 essential services are being carried out with heads of regional health bureaus in the presence of the executive and management of committees of the Ministry of Health.
Continuity of major health programs such as maternal and child health, communicable and non-communicable diseases require an intensified focus in the next norm by integrating anthropogenic and natural calamities, including disease outbreaks. Resilient health systems require solidarity, agility and continuity of essential services—all tailored to local circumstances.
Furthermore, a major interruption of supply chain of essential medications and diagnostic tools hamper our progress. Now more than ever, we want the support of partners to strengthen local productions and self-sustaining markets. Solidarity, agility and continuity, the cornerstone foundations of Ethiopia’s COVID-19 response, will become the gateway for Ethiopia’s attainment of a new horizon of hope, the piece further stated.
The Ethiopian herald December 24/2020
