Economic and healthcare responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many governments across the world searching for effective responses to the challenges their citizens face. The paper adopted a qualitative research approach, drawing from an extensive review of literature, analysed through thematic analysis, to explore Africa’s economic response as well as challenges faced by the African health systems in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from thematic analysis, pervasive poverty, protracted wars, and entrenched underdevelopment are fundamental considerations in Africa that impact intervention measures towards COVID-19. The thematic analysis also found that inadequate human capital, support for healthcare, weak leadership and management, and lack of quality data were detrimental to Africa’s healthcare delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To improve COVID-19 health response in Africa, public health policymakers can consider adopting the World Health Organization (WHO) national guidelines on reporting, data management, and public accountability on state health disbursed resources.