Covid-19   Towards improving outbreak response   |06 September 2022

Dr Gedeon addressing the gathering (Photos: Louis Toussaint)

Seychelles is joining a number of countries and African states to conduct a Covid-19 Intra-Action Review (IAR) exercise towards remediating and improving Covid-19 outbreak response, with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The country-led process is grouping together stakeholders of the ongoing Covid-19 response within the Ministry of Health for the three-day workshop whereby they are to review the functional capacities of public health and emergency response systems at national level, to identify best practices, gaps and lessons learned, and propose corrective measures and actions for immediate remediation or sustained improvement of the Covid-19 outbreak response.

Public Health Commissioner Jude Gedeon, during yesterday’s opening ceremony, remarked that the world is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic three years on, necessitating continued response actions. The results of the IAR will help Seychelles to situate itself and evaluate its position against other countries and their response plans.

“The time has come for us to take a few steps back and see what we have done, what is being done and what we are still doing. Are resources being well used? Are we achieving the set objectives? What needs to be done differently to improve? These questions must be answered in the most objective ways,” Dr Gedeon stated.

Seychelles’ national response plan to control and mitigate the impacts of the pandemic is based on 11 key pillars. In fact, the small-island state has in the past received praises from the WHO for its interventions and response to the pandemic.

With the completion of the IAR, the country joins the 60 percent plus countries in the African region to have completed the exercise.

For his part, principal secretary for health, Dr Bernard Valentin, also asserted the importance of such exercises, in preparation for other potential and future surges and outbreaks.

Over the course of the three-days, healthcare professionals are to work in groups and engage in discussions aimed at assessing the various components of the response action plan, to identify the gaps and strengths, the findings of which are to be included into what PS Valentin said should be a “robust, implementable, change-oriented action plan”.

Moving forward, there is also the opportunity to use intra-action reviews for other protracted public health events beyond Covid-19.

Laura Pillay