African health ministers endorse joint strategy to fight COVID-19

In an effort to win the battle against coronavirus amid severe delays in accessing COVID-19 vaccines, increasing morbidity and mortality, AU member states' ministers of health have endorsed an adapted joint continental strategy.

The strategy will focus on enhanced prevention, monitoring, and treatment to meet the changing dimensions of the disease on the continent, as well as the evolving nature of the global pandemic.

In a communique published on the Africa Centers of Disease Control and Prevention website on Friday following a high-level emergency meeting on May 8, the ministers called on AU member states to intensify their efforts for vaccination as a critical component to prevent, contain and bring the pandemic to an end as soon as possible.

They also urged member states to take up their COVID-19 vaccine allocations through the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team platform and engage with the African Export Import Bank to work out the details for the advance purchase agreement.

The ministers appealed to member states to leverage harmonized continental digital technologies for the response to COVID-19, including addressing its socioeconomic impact and paying particular attention to digital inclusion, patient empowerment, data privacy and security.

This is in addition to legal and ethical issues and the protection of personal data, which are values enshrined in the official AU Trusted Health framework, and its digital archetypes, the Trusted Travel and Trusted Vaccines platforms. The platforms are cost-free to all member states to drive the digitization of their COVID-19 response efforts.

The ministers also called on member states to invest in acquiring data with appropriate security, and sharing of data in a timely fashion, to help support continental response efforts against COVID-19, and to enable the Africa CDC to better implement the continental strategy in response to the disease.

The ministers endorsed and supported the Africa common position on a COVID-19 passport, which calls for a global moratorium against the mandatory and unilateral imposition of vaccine requirements for international travel.