9 April 2020 - The Central African Republic is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Today, the population has also to face the Covid-19 threat. 11 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed so far by the Ministry of Health.
Handwashing stations being prepared before installation in Bangui
Should the number of cases grow significantly, the fragile health system will not be able to cope with them in Bangui, let alone in the remote areas of the country, where no health services are available. Therefore, it is crucial to contain the spread of the virus by focusing on prevention measures, notably in Bangui, where a third of the total population lives and where all eleven cases have been recorded so far.
In addition to its multisectorial interventions all across the country, ACTED is now implementing specific WASH activities aimed at preventing the virus to spread further. In Bangui, ACTED is constructing 9 additional boreholes and training local committees on how to manage these boreholes and on the good hygiene practices to follow. Furthermore, ad-hoc sensitizations are currently being organized in the framework of all ACTED’s WASH interventions in the different Prefectures of CAR.
The implementation of these types of hygiene measures is particularly crucial in a country where the majority of the population relies on the informal economy to survive, making the effective implementation of containment measures difficult.
All efforts must be made in order to fight the virus at the prevention level, in order to avoid a sanitary and social disaster in a country which is already struggling to recover from years of conflict
Handwashing stations distributed at the central market of Dimbi, Basse-Kotto Prefecture