The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Friday urged the African continent to increase compliance with the public health and social measures as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to gain momentum in Africa.
On Friday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent exceeded the 1 million mark, reaching 1,007,366 confirmed cases as of Friday afternoon, according to the Africa CDC.
“As the pandemic continues to gain momentum in Africa, we must increase compliance to the public health and social measures so we can protect ourselves and protect our economy,” an Africa CDC statement quoted John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, as saying on Friday.
“We must increase mass wearing of masks as we expand testing and treatment services,” the Africa CDC Director said in his message regarding the launch of the World Mask Week, slated from August 7 to 14, as an effort to increase the use of face coverings in public across the globe.
According to the continental disease control and prevention agency, the number of deaths related to COVID-19 also rose to 22,066 on Friday as some 690,436 COVID-19 patients have recovered across the continent so far.
As the pandemic spread across Africa, the Africa CDC together with the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 40 other global, regional and national organizations and institutions have initiated the Pandemic Action Network, which launched the World Mask Week that envisaged increasing the use of face coverings in public in Africa and beyond.
The initiative was launched by the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus launched as part of his Wear a Mask challenge to mark the beginning of World Mask Week, asking people to share their mask photos and videos, it was noted.
Despite the latest call to increase compliance to the public health and social measures, the Africa CDC had recently warned African countries to brace for possible “acute shortage” of COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the near future.
