West Africa and COVID-19: A Model for Effective Mitigation with Limited Resources
06.Jan.2021 9:00 AM . 7 min read
As the coronavirus pandemic began to sweep the globe, health experts, political commentators, and others quickly turned their eyes to Africa. With the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa lingering in recent memory, many predicted a coronavirus nightmare unlike anything seen in decades. On CNN, Melinda Gates, a major advocate for global health causes, said that COVID-19 spread in Africa would result in bodies out on the street. Forecasters predicted millions of COVID-19 deaths throughout the continent, with untold devastation and damage to the continent s economy, infrastructure, and education. Global forecasts foretold a dark future, one which would threaten millions of lives across the continent.
Assistant Director for the Ministry of Health, Abdulla Mauroof
RaajjeMV
The Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) advised that there was a very real possibility that the new, more virulent variant of Covid-19 currently sweeping through the United Kingdom and different parts of the world could reach Maldives.
Speaking on RaajjeTV s Fala Surukhee program regarding the new Covid-19 variant and the status of the Maldives, Assistant Director for the Ministry of Health, Abdulla Mauroof said that while the new variant was now being reported in the UK and other countries, experts were analyzing the variant and its effects very closely, and that the Maldives would be following international-best practice in order to curb the spread of the virus.
A Covid-19 community spread was confirmed on 7 March 2020
AFP
300 days have passed since the first cases of Covid-19 were reported in the Maldives. The novel coronavirus which was first observed in Wuhan, China in December 2019, washed ashore on the islands of Maldives on 7 March 2020 after a tourist who had holidayed in Kuredu Island Resort tested positive upon returning home. This prompted health officials to begin testing employees at the resort, resulting in the discovery of the first two cases of coronavirus in the Maldives in two foreign employees whose results came back as positive for Covid-19.
As positive cases were being observed in communities, the nation was placed under a State of Public Health Emergency on 12 March 2020, with schools for a week and later, indefinitely. Events and gatherings were also put on hold indefinitely until further notice, and after considering the state of public health in the country, the Elections Commission announced that they would be pos
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The brutal governance lessons of 2020 My Republica
OXFORD, Jan. 3 The pandemic has revealed the urgent need to build connective tissue across governments and between national and sub-national institutions in the US and the UK.
COVID-19 has offered some tough but useful lessons about governance. Many wealthy countries did not manage the crisis as well as anticipated, whereas many poorer, populous, and vulnerable countries exceeded expectations. The difference raises important questions not just about public-health management but also about the state of governance in the world s largest and oldest democracies.
Just before the pandemic, a coalition of major foundations published a Global Health Security Index (GHSI) that ranked countries capacity to prevent, detect, and report an infection, and to respond rapidly to disease outbreaks. Unsurprisingly, a data journalist with Statista observed at the time, higher income countries tended to record better sco
COVID-19: Maldives to sign with AstraZeneca Singapore to procure vaccine
Fathmath Shaahunaz
31 December 2020, MVT 17:08
(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 23, 2020 This illustration picture taken in Paris shows a syringe and a bottle reading Covid-19 Vaccine next to AstraZeneca company and University of Oxford logos. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)
Fathmath Shaahunaz
31 December 2020, MVT 17:08
The government on Thursday announced plans to sign an agreement with AstraZeneca Singapore Pte Ltd to procure the coronavirus vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, for Maldives.
In a resolution signed by Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, the finance ministry highlighted the pressing global demands for COVID-19 vaccines, which are available only from limited sources.