UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is ramping up efforts to increase capacity to prevent, treat and limit the potential spread of COVID-19 among refugee communities across the East, Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa, which hosts some of the largest refugee populations in the world. Living in crowded conditions, without adequate access to water and sanitation facilities, and with precarious livelihoods and food security, refugees in the region are particularly vulnerable to the virus, both in refugee camps and in urban areas.
Following confirmation of the first cases of COVID-19 in South Sudan and Eritrea last week, all countries in the region are now responding to the outbreak. While to date there have been no confirmed cases amongst refugees, asylum-seekers or internally displaced people in the region, the need to be prepared is urgent.
UNHCR is actively engaged with Ministries of Health and other government authorities, and the World Health Organization, on the inclusion of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people (IDPs) in national response plans. A number of countries in the region already have exemplary policies in place that allow refugees to access public health-care services. However, many refugees live in remote areas many miles from the nearest government health facilities. Others live in small, overcrowded dwellings in densely populated urban areas where they face significant challenges in adhering to guidelines around physical and social distancing.
Many of our operations in the region have provided refugees increased quantities of food and basic relief items including soap to reduce the frequency of distributions and the risks posed by queues and large crowds.

To help combat the spread of COVID-19 and prepare first respondents, the Ethio-American Doctors Group (EADG) is delivering a webinar course on COVID-19 to medical doctors in Ethiopia.
The course is being given in collaboration with hospitals and medical institutions with EADG physicians who are currently managing the severely ill COVID-19 patients in the USA.
The first round of the webinar includes eight sessions that started on April 3, 2020. It was given to physicians and health officials identified to be involved in caring for patients affected by COVID 19. The course is being given by 7 EADG medical doctors who live and work abroad and one local physician.
“As we are witnessing how High-Income countries are struggling to contain and control this pandemic, we cannot imagine the damage it will cause to low resource countries like ours,” said Girma Tefera MD, the chairperson of EADG.
The online course includes clinical features, treatment, and outcomes in COVID 19 patients, infection control and air way management, mechanical ventilation, recommendations for women in labor and their newborn, and emergency preparedness & leadership.
The online courses will be made available on the EADG website and the EADG YouTube page.
In addition to the training, the EADG is running a campaign to raise money to help Ethiopia’s health workers combat COVID 19.

The Bureau of the Sixth Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) has met and adopted an action plan establishing key priorities for implementing key messages from the forum that was held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in February.
Chaired by Zimbabwe’s Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Mr. Paul Mavima, this was the Bureau’s first meeting since the adoption of the Victoria Falls Declaration on the Decade of Action for Sustainable Development in Africa.
The Decade of Action calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges, ranging from poverty and gender to climate change, inequality and closing the finance gap.
With the coronavirus pandemic raging on the continent, members of the bureau recognized the unprecedented and serious challenges being caused by COVID-19 and noted with grave concern the growing loss of human lives and huge negative economic and social impacts of the crisis on the continent.
Africa, they agreed, was likely to be disproportionately affected by the pandemic given the region’s underlying vulnerabilities.
The Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) recent analysis on the impact of the pandemic estimates that economic growth on the continent is expected to drop from 3.2 percent to 1.8 percent. As of March 2020, a decline of 1.4 percentage points is expected from the effects of COVID-19. Africa’s Finance Ministers have called for an initial support package of US$ 100 billion in 2020 to cushion their nations from impacts of the pandemic.

Facebook announced its partnership with the Ethiopian government to keep Ethiopians safe and informed about COVID-19 through updates on its platform.
Facebook is enabling educational pop-ups on search results around the virus on all its platforms, the company is also providing the Ministry of Health with free ad credits to enable them run coronavirus education campaigns on its platforms.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Facebook has launched WhatsApp Business API, a dedicated Coronavirus hotline – 0962228565. The Coronavirus hotline is an automated ‘chatbot’ service which will enable Ethiopians to get answers to the most common questions about Coronavirus from the Ministry of Health 24 hours a day. The service will also provide information on topics such as Coronavirus prevention and symptoms, advice on staying at home, travel advisory and mythbusting. The service will also enable the Ministry of Health to send urgent messages to all Ethiopians who will opt-in for the service.
Included in its ongoing efforts, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Facebook has also trained government officials on the best practices of using Facebook tools to educate Ethiopians on the government’s efforts around COVID-19.