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Title The Precious Commodity of Time and Sub-Saharan Africas Success in Keeping COVID-19 at Bay.
Full text https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0616m73c
Date 2020
Author(s) Wojcicki, Janet
Abstract Most sub-Saharan African countries acted early and aggressively in response to the WHO COVID-19 warning by closing schools, international borders, limiting domestic travel and restricting large gatherings. The six most populous sub-Saharan African countries, at the beginning of July 2020 with the exception of Republic of South Africa, all had relatively modest COVID-19 case counts compared with European, North and South American and some Asian countries in spite of access to more limited medical resources and technologies. Shutdowns or shelter-in-places were put in place for 5 out of 6 countries surveyed well before the first reported COVID-19 death. Timely action to enact comprehensive public health measures are irreplaceable and cannot be substituted by later use of medical resources or technologies. In the case of Republic of South Africa, earlier and multiple instances of virus introduction may have made infection control much more difficult compared with other sub-Saharan African countries.
Subject(s) COVID-19; coronavirus; sub-Saharan Africa; COVID-19; Communicable Disease Control; Coronavirus Infections; Developing Countries; Humans; Pandemics; Pneumonia; Viral; Primary Prevention; Socioeconomic Factors; South Africa; Time Factors
Publisher eScholarship, University of California
Type of publication article
Format application/pdf
Source Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health, vol 10, iss 3
Rights public
Identifier qt0616m73c
Repository Berkeley - University of California
Added to C-A: 2024-03-25;08:48:48