The Southern African Development Committee (SADC) has urged member states to strengthen individual health systems while intensifying co-operation and collaborations to fight COVID-19 pandemic in a more effective way.
In a statement, President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi who is also the SADC Chairperson said member state should reinforce health systems to deliver other life-saving services and better withstand future pandemics.
“There is a growing concern that infections are being driven in part by a new strain of coronavirus known as 501.V2, which has so far been reported in three SADC countries according to the Africa Centre for Disease Control.
“The socio-economic impact of the pandemic on the lives of citizens is becoming widespread and devastating. Education, employment and economic activities have been severely disrupted, worsening poverty, with all underlying social consequences, inter alia the increase in crime and gender-based violence,” he said.
Nyusi called on SADC to intensify co-operation and collaboration through increased data sharing, policy harmonisation and standardisation, pooled procurement of essential medical and non-medical equipment to address the pandemic in a more effective way.
This comes as new cases of the pandemic continue to worsen in the region, accounting for more than 50 percent of all new daily infections in Africa.
“National daily statistics show a steep increase in the spread of the virus and in the number of deaths across the region, which evidences that the region is deep into the second wave of the pandemic. In fact, more than 50 percent of all new daily infections of Covid-19 on African continent have been reported in the SADC region,” said Nyusi.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe recorded 38 COVID-19 deaths and 342 new cases yesterday taking the cumulative total to 32 646 and 1160 deaths since March.
Harare remains the country’s Covid-19 hotspot with 2 763 active cases and it recorded 83 new infections on Thursday.
