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.
EADG delivers webinar course for Ethiopian Doctors on COVID-19
Stronger partnerships crucial for successful implementation of SDGs in light of 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 partners with the Ethiopian Government to combat Coronavirus
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.
The Ethiopian Economic
The Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute which is under the Ethiopian Economics Association released a Policy Working Paper entitled ‘Economic and Welfare Effects of COVID-19 and Responses in Ethiopia: Initial Insights’ to review the economic impact of the pandemic.
‘The Novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic is a global challenge that requires coordinated efforts from governments, individuals, businesses, and various stakeholders. The world economy is experiencing a historic and unprecedented shocks as the pandemic triggers a number of shocks simultaneously including health, supply, demand and financial shocks. Efforts by governments to control the COVID-19 pandemic through partial and full business closures unavoidably leads to general decline in economic activities domestically and globally. This contraction in economic activities leads to economic recession if the pandemic lasts for a prolonged period. Studies indicated that societies with a lower economic status are more vulnerable to rising rates of chronic illness from the COVID-19 further complicated by economic and social welfare hardships. This, in turn, further depresses productivity and raises health care costs, leading to increased poverty, and hence again more disease. This is a “disease-driven poverty trap” the report reads. The writers of this paper also said that this paper is released urgently to make it available for reference; hence it has not undergone a peer-review process.
