Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for having once again joined us today.

I am very pleased to be joined today by Her Excellency, Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, and Prosper Zo’o Minto’o, Regional Director for Western Africa of ICAO to discuss the risks related to air travel and the mitigation strategies that countries and individuals can take to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Many governments have decided that travel needs to resume and of course we have seen that the closing down of travel has been a huge challenge to some of the work that has needed to be done – moving people, experts and moving goods around countries. So, this is a very important moment we think, which is why we thought this was a good theme for today’s discussion.

There are now more than 413,000 COVID-19 cases on the African continent and sadly more than 10,000 people have died.

In the WHO African Region, there are variations in how the epidemic is unfolding. There is community transmission in 30 out of our 47 countries. We also see that in countries like Benin and Malawi case numbers are low but are accelerating. In countries like Ghana and Nigeria cases are steadily increasing. In Sierra Leone and Zambia, for instance, new cases are now decreasing. And we know that South Africa continues to be the worst-affected country accounting for around two-thirds of the new cases in the past few days.

As countries open-up borders, WHO’s advice is to make decisions and take action based on the data. This requires strong surveillance systems, case finding and testing to know where the virus is.

Points-of-entry screening at land crossings has evolved into testing in some sub-regions we have seen, and occasionally led to long queues of vehicles and transport delays, and protocols have been developed to reduce this. So, I think this tells us something about what might be necessary as far as the opening-up now of air travel.

Through preparedness for Ebola, temperature screening at airports is well-established in the Region and we know that this has had an important contribution in identifying cases and also in enabling the tracing of their contacts once they left the airport because information was being collected of who was travelling and who was sitting where in a plane.

Preliminary evidence on COVID-19 indicates asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic and mild cases play a significant role in transmission. This means that follow-up of passengers for 14 days and strong contact tracing systems are incredibly important to identify imported cases as travel by air is opening-up.

Passenger information should be collected and managed quickly and systematically in collaboration with health authorities. Travellers need to know who to contact and what to do if they start to feel unwell.

Surfaces like handrails and door handles should be frequently disinfected. Physical distancing should be encouraged by leaving seats vacant when possible and avoiding crowding people closely together.

Our actions as individuals really make a difference. You may not feel ill, other people may not look ill, but the virus may be there. By practising physical distancing, hand hygiene, and wearing a mask over our mouths and noses, we can reduce the risk of transmission.

Thanks to the public health and social measures that countries have put in place, we have not seen a sharp peak in cases in Africa. Going forward, everyone should prepare for this virus to continue to circulate for the foreseeable future. When restrictions are eased, cases may flare up, so every community must be able to find, test, isolate and care for cases, and trace and isolate contacts.

The risks can’t be reduced to zero. We are constantly learning about this virus and what works in suppressing transmission. We will continue updating our guidance in line with the evidence. With data driving the response and everyone playing a role, we can limit the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.

I very much look forward to our discussion and thank you again for having joined us.

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