Obijiofor Aginam gives an overview of what global health governance is and what it is likely to look like after the pandemic
The African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST) organised an international webinar meeting on 26 August 2020 to exchange views on inter-sectoral collaboration (ISC) in the response to COVID-19 in Africa. This paper reports ACHEST's recent webinar on collaborative and inclusive approaches to strengthening healthcare delivery. The objective of the meeting was to inspire African governments to pay attention to the potential of ISC and the Whole-of-Society approach for COVID-19 response;to build and sustain trust of the population through effective communication that reaches communities with credible information;and create awareness on the need to roll out decentralised governance structures that reach all individuals, households and communities.
Virologists working in large diagnostic laboratories in South Africa give insights into testing in a pandemic As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolds, several factors have come to the fore as particularly relevant Rather than give an overview of current testing guidelines and practices which are prone to change over time, and in any case, for which good reviews are available, the study instead wants to list some of the pertinent issues encountered in South Africa, the African country first and so far worst hit by the pandemic, and some proposed solutions Clear and up-to-date guidance is needed and must be followed by all role players, including different spheres of government In South Africa for example, some official governmental recommendations have not been aligned with national Department of Health guidance, and for example, required negative PCR test results before an individual who had Covid-19 was allowed back to their workplace Such unnecessary requirements serve no purpose but increase the burden on laboratories and interfere with testing of clinically and epidemiologically relevant samples As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic spreads, laboratory staff will become infected, too;their infection risk is not exposure to specimens (provided some simple precautions are being followed) but instead to the community and also colleagues Therefore, the same rules will have to be followed as in all workplaces, including universal wearing of non-medical (cloth) masks, physical distancing, improved hand hygiene, regular cleaning and disinfection of surfaces, etc
