01/14/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/14/2021 16:10 Acting Early, Fast and Together: Mobilizing Efforts to Prepare and Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ethiopia Challenge The COVID-19 outbreak occurred alongside political unrest and other public health emergencies in Ethiopia. The Ministry of Health and the Ethiopia Public Health Institute developed an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) for the pandemic. The plan aims to strengthen the surveillance system and response capacity to early detect and respond to the possible importation of an outbreak. To help contain the spread of the virus, the government declared a State of Emergency on April 8, 2020. It introduced measures such as a nationwide ban on gatherings of more than four people, making the wearing of masks compulsory outdoors, and regulating the operation of transportation services, hotels, and restaurants under reduced capacity. While the preparedness for the outbreak response was continuing, there was limited capacity in analyzing how the epidemic would progress from that single case identified in March 2020 to understanding the evolving nature of the pandemic, and in testing (on average 5,000 tests per day by May 2020 for more than a million people).