Opinion: The blessing that the Coronavirus outbreak has been for Africa

Coronavirus outbreak

Wed 03 Jun, 2020

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By Maclean Atuhaire

The Coronavirus disease (COVID19) has definitely brought the entire world to its knees; making the world's best health and economic systems tremble.

With fewer cases being registered in Africa compared to the other continents, the implications could however be worse because of the weaker health and economic systems, if we do not take the necessary precautions suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) to stop the spread of this pandemic seriously. As cases keep rising every day, we are only left with just hope that this nightmare ends or a vaccine is discovered.

For every low there is a high, and amidst this pandemic scuffle, there have been some unexpected positive side effects due to the abrupt shift of human behavior in response to containing the pandemic. Appreciation of new and existing technology, local industrialization growth and a change of priorities by our governments to support the health sector have been the "silver lining" in this situation.

Appreciation of technology

Technology has been such a great factor to the betterment of Africa's economies, but its tremendous rise in usage was realized when the lockdowns were announced. Economies went on a standstill forcing many people to stay home to contain the spread of the pandemic affecting very many sectors. Employers had to therefore shift from their rudimentary ways of working to encouraging their employees to appreciate new technologies such as virtual meetings and voice over Internet protocols (VoIPs), to ensure that the organizations are going concern to contribute to the shift from recessions in the economies.

Technology has been a great infrastructure not only in the corporate working environment but also in the health sector where health experts are now embracing telemedicine being able to exchange critical medical information beyond geographical boundaries. A case in point was the video conference meeting held on Tuesday may 12^th, 2020by the EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY (EAC) Heads of State alongside with their respective health ministers to discuss how to combat the spread of COVID19 while maintain the flow of trade within the region.

Local industrialization growth

Africa for a long time has been depending on imported goods because of its struggling industrial landscape. Following the global lockdown due the pandemic, this only meant less international business interactions making the economies' self-sustainability inevitable.

In Uganda to be specific, a new company manufacturing face masks recently went into production to meet the high demand for these essential commodities especially for the health workers who are working around the clock to contain the spread and treat those who have been infected with Covid19.

A change of priorities by our governments to support the health sector

Africa's health sector is considered to be the poorest in the world, a priority that has been ignored for a very longtime by our governments. Poor medical infrastructure, shortage of doctors and overly crowded hospitals has been a cry for help by the population.

The outbreak of Covid19 has shifted such negligence to great investment in Africa's health sectors. The African Union and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) launched a partnership; Africa Covid19 Response Fund hoping to raise US$ 150 million to purchase medical equipment and support the deployment of rapid responders across the continent to combat the spread of the virus.

In Uganda, Makerere University, Resilient Africa Network (RAN) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MoSTI) plan to develop low cost ventilator architecture. Such investments and innovations are here to stay and probably better our health systems.

In conclusion, Covid19 has only been a bitter-sweet situation for all; exposing the weakness of many economies and yet again giving them an opportunity to iron out their flaws.

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