CORONAVIRUS – IS SADC READY?

CHINA is the greatest trading partner for most SADC countries and thus most citizens of the region travel to the Asian country for business, while the region also receives a lot of guests from China. Since the outbreak of coronavirus in China, the region has been on high alert.

The world is shrinking, and the proximity of the SADC region is brought about by trade relations that have developed and deepened over the years. The region is, therefore, vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus owing to the volume of trade and travel between Asia and the region.

The virus has made global headlines in recent weeks and in Africa. Ivory Coast became the first country on the continent to test a suspected coronavirus case when a female student arrived at an airport in the capital Abidjan with suspicious symptoms.
In SADC, the first suspected case of coronavirus was recorded in Botswana on January 30, 2020, although there were earlier reports that in Zambia there was a recorded case.

Refuted

This, however, was refuted by Zambian Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya, and this calls for more vigilance on the part of SADC member States.According to reports from Botswana, the suspected case was registered at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport upon the suspected infected person’s arrival aboard an Ethiopian Airways plane from China.

Now that the suspected cases are on SADC shores, the need for member States to be vigilant cannot be over emphasised. Due to regional integration and globalisation, the world is fast shrinking.

This has its pros and cons, and one of those cons is the fast spreading of diseases across borders as exhibited by the spread of coronavirus from its epicentre in China to other parts of the world. This means the virus can easily spread across the borders to other member states.

Challenge

The challenge of the SADC region is its porous borders and cases can spread undetected. Screening is done at the points of entry for early diagnosis and treatment. This raises the point of capacity.

Do SADC member States have the capacity to screen for the virus? One also needs to look at the issue of porous borders. Besides the borders, officially SADC citizens travel across the region, and the risk of the disease spreading across is high.
The region needs to be adequately prepared for active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management, contact tracing and prevention of onward spread of coronavirus infections, and to share full data with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

As in the case of Botswana, the suspected case has been placed in isolation and investigations are ongoing. The SADC Secretariat must be commended for issuing an advisory on the virus. This will enable the “SADC Secretariat staff and the public in SADC member states to understand the basic tenets of how to identify the symptoms of the disease, the mode of contamination and the precautionary measures to apply.” The advisory has called upon the member states to be proactive and identify, isolate and care for patients early, including providing optimised care for infected patients.

This includes mandatory fever screening at point of entry and isolation. “This is very critical in order to curb this ‘novel’ virus. Member states need to take this advisory message seriously and take all measures necessary to prevent the spread of the virus across borders.”

In the event of an emergency, the sharing of information across member states is of paramount importance, and as such member states are encouraged to “communicate critical risk and event information to all communities and counter misinformation; minimise social and economic impact through multi-sectoral partnership”. This will enable the public to stay informed and for authorities to take appropriate measures to combat the virus. Research into the epidemiology and natural history of the virus is ongoing.

Although the origin of the disease in Wuhan City, China, is suspected to be zoonotic (of animal origin), evidence suggests that current spread is from human to human.
The majority of the coronavirus cases were linked to a seafood, poultry and live wildlife market in

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