Efforts must also be maintained on other health emergencies and progress made against diseases such as malaria or polio, the World Health Organization or WHO urged countries.
The organization in a statement on Thursday, said even brief interruptions of vaccination make outbreaks more likely to occur, putting children and other vulnerable groups more at risk of life-threatening diseases.
‘I urge all countries to not lose focus on their gains made in health as they adapt to tackle this new threat,’ said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
He added that ‘we saw with the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in West Africa that we lost more people to malaria, for instance than, we lost to the Ebola outbreak. Let us not repeat that with COVID-19.’
WHO warned that the consequences of disrupting efforts to control malaria in Africa could be particularly grave.
WHO and partners said if malaria prevention and treatment services were severely disrupted as a result of COVID-19, the number of deaths in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa could double the number in 2018.