Response to "How prepared is Africa to face COVID-19?" by Wadoum and Clarke

John Koku Awoonor-Williams; James Franklin Phillips; Stephen Patrick Kachur; Elizabeth Fletcher Jackson; Rachel Tara Moresky; Dennis Chirawurah

doi:10.11604/pamj.supp.2020.35.2.23829

Response to "How prepared is Africa to face COVID-19?" by Wadoum and Clarke

Pan Afr Med J. 2020 Jun 3;35(Suppl 2):59. doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2020.35.2.23829. eCollection 2020.

Authors

John Koku Awoonor-Williams¹, James Franklin Phillips², Stephen Patrick Kachur², Elizabeth Fletcher Jackson², Rachel Tara Moresky², Dennis Chirawurah³

Affiliations

¹ Director, Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ghana Health Service, Accra, Ghana.
² Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA.
³ University of Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana.

Abstract

A recent commentary published in this journal correctly notes the important challenges that must be addressed to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. While we agree with the basic assumptions and arguments of their essay, we argue that common social institutional norms in most rural settings could be marshalled for organizing preventive measures.

Keywords: Africa; COVID-19; health systems; social norms.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Africa
COVID-19*
Humans
Pandemics*
Rural Population
SARS-CoV-2