Africa Health Knowledge Management Portal
Informing Health Decisions and Actions
Statement on COVID-19 and the training of healthcare professionals in Africa
Response
Description
Healthcare workforce development is critical to meeting Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) and other health-related SDGs and to achieve universal healthcare coverage (UHC)2(p3) in Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic further compounds the already ill equipped, under-staffed strained, and over-stretched healthcare system which has struggled in the past to provide adequate, quality healthcare for the populace3. The pandemic has increased the demand for services by healthcare professionals and constrained the supply of essential and often limited commodities. Training of new healthcare workers has been constrained by the public health outbreak control policies and healthcare workers who contract COVID-19 are forced to isolate for a period. This complex constraint will likely to continue for the unforeseen future with negative impact on the health of the population, as healthcare workers in Africa continue to be exposed to SARS-COV-2.