WHO Covid Surge Team in SA

The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed a surge team to South Africa in order to boost the country’s COVID-19 response.

The development comes as the number of confirmed cases in Africa passes one million. Some experts such as senior researcher at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Ridhwaan Suliman believe the true figures to be much higher, with Suliman estimating the continent to have at least 5 million infections. 

The deployment includes 43 experts from across various fields who will support South Africa’s outbreak response management. The first 17 personnel arrived on Wednesday, with expertise such as epidemiology, surveillance, case management, infection, prevention and control, procurement and community mobilization and health education. 

With over half a million cases confirmed South Africa is now among the five countries worst hit by the pandemic globally. 

“At this time when the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa is spreading rapidly, it is important that we work together to intensify our fight against the virus,” said Dr Owen Kaluwa, WHO Representative for South Africa.  

“For this reason, WHO is ramping up support to complement national and provincial efforts to scale-up the response. Our collective efforts are necessary to identify cases, isolate and provide care, follow up contacts and fully implement physical distancing and other key public health measures. In this way, we will minimize the spread and impact of COVID19,” Dr Kaluwa explained. 

Before the delegation are cleared for deployment they will need to undergo an initial period of quarantine and testing.