The current Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic has created a
wave of shock across the world and a debacle on all sectors, with health care,
travel retail, informal sector, aviation, trade & tourism, transport and
entertainment being majorly affected.
COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by the most recently
discovered coronavirus. [1]. A person infected with COVID-19 may show signs
& symptoms within 14 days of contracting
the disease. These include fever, dry cough, difficulty in breathing, tiredness and sore throat. The
virus stemmed from Wuhan, China with early cases reported to the World Health
Organization (WHO) in December 2019 and the outbreak declared a Public Health
Emergency Of International Concern on 30thJanuary 2020 [2]. As spread spilled
off to the rest of the World, the World Health Organization on the 11th March
2020 declared this a pandemic and a global crisis of our time [3].
According to WHO situation report as of May 6th 2020, there are currently 3,557,235 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with
245,150 deaths resulting. The African continent so far has registered 20,385
confirmed cases, 11,375 recoveries and 1,193 deaths [4].
In an urgent response to this global pandemic, different
governments have put in place different measures to prevent transmission. In
some countries, closing crowded areas like schools & churches, banning
public transport or imposing a curfew, seem to bear results. On the other end
of the spectrum, these same measures may inflict additional hardship on the
preexisting dwindling sectors of the economy.
But what threats does the pandemic pose to health care, social &
economic well-being, and what age groups stand to be affected most?
Lack of or inequitable access to health care in Africa is a key
concern when addressing the social determinants of health, and this pandemic
stands to exacerbate the status quo. With the average poverty rate for
sub-Saharan Africa standing at 41 percent (and with 27 out of the world’s 28
poorest countries being in sub-Saharan Africa), access to proper healthcare is
limited which poses a heightened threat to contagion.
Furthermore, the health seeking behavior of the African population
is poor. Spurred by the fear of contracting
the virus in ill-maintained and ill-equipped health facilities, mothers may be even more reluctant to take their children for immunization. As
such, a possible rise in immunizable diseases could ensue. Given the youth form
the largest proportion of the African population, a subsequent effect on this
active population as unimmunized children transition would be felt in the long
run. Furthermore, the elderly are already struggling to get refills for their
medications, especially those with chronic comorbidities such as hypertension
and diabetes among others. Whereas this is short term impact of the pandemic,
the long term might be a rise in complications resulting from these
Non-Communicable Diseases.
Following the global financial crisis in 2007–08, many countries
saw higher rates of depression and anxiety and an increase in alcohol and drug
use. In 2008, the Great Recession ushered in a 13 percent increase in suicides,
attributable to unemployment with over 46,000 lives lost due to unemployment
and income inequality in that year alone [5]. As such, a big impact of the
pandemic which should not be neglected is mental health. With some companies
resorting to lay off employees to cut overhead expenses, unemployment is on the
rise, which is taking a heavy emotional toll on people. Added to that come the
behavioral changes of isolation and social distancing, making it inevitable
that the global pandemic, compounded by the entailing financial difficulties,
will have an important impact on the mental health of people.
The Covid-19 outbreak is presenting an economic resource litmus
test in Africa and the world at large regarding their preparedness for
pandemics. National preparedness to detect, manage and control emergencies or
pandemics like COVID-19 requires adequate financial resources and investment in
public health systems. The same is true for response: evidence points to a
direct link between the adequacy of health financing and key metrics associated
with effective response, including the quality of clinical care and health
outcomes. Most countries in Africa and the world at large are introducing
stimulus packages to help them cope with the economic ravages of COVID-19 let
alone the urgent need by governments to rapidly scale up surveillance and
health provision activities. The question is, can African countries afford and
sustain the mounting costs brought about by the outbreak of COVID-19?
After all is said, what lessons can policy makers and corporations take
away and what adjustments will shape The New Normal?
Governments and corporations would want to turn guns and invest
more in preventive health care and impose more stringent public health
measures. These measures should become cheaper and easier to access as
evidenced when hit by pandemics.
Also, we learn big on the advantage of local industrialization.
Whereas ministries have sparked off local manufacture of Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) for frontline health workers and testing kits to detect
contagion, there should be more diversification in the long term to accommodate
all sectors that deliver essential services. A more proportionate distribution
of industries across the country would significantly contribute to employment
in the long term.
A multidisciplinary and all-inclusive effort is essential from all
sectors at all levels to design, characterize, evaluate, mobilize and implement
interventions to combat the economic ravages and global burden of Covid-19.
Looking at Uganda for instance, the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) saw
within its mandate to engage all regulated medical insurance and reinsurance
providers on possibilities of extending existing medical insurance policies to
cover cases of COVID-19. COVID-19 cases should have been classified as an
exclusion as the majority of insurance policies do not cover for pandemics due
to their catastrophic nature. In effect, on the 8th of April 2020, the
insurance players unanimously agreed to support Government efforts in
preventing the spread of COVID-19. As a
result, the cover for COVID-19 was to include testing, treatment and care at Government designated facilities. Whereas this is an advantage for
the already insured employees, it is also a wakeup call for companies to have
inclusive health cover policies for their employees ahead of unprecedented
times. Likewise, companies should adopt health screening protocols to curb any
contagious disease that could be a possible threat to its employees.
Furthermore, post COVID-19, it should be within the oblige of companies to
assess mental health of its employees, given the important mental toll the
pandemic is having on people. Whereas Health and Economy might not be seen as
one, one is a direct contribution to the other. That is, a surge in the economy
would have a negative impact on health and a decline in health (and an increase
in the disease burden) would have a negative impact on the economy.
Sustaining businesses in the turmoil created by the pandemic is a
big challenge and it is during times like these that leadership plays a key
role. Learning fast from the black Swan theory [6], leaders must adapt and
adjust to the change in the normal. The private sector needs to make
significant contributions to the agenda through thought leadership; one way to
do so is by redistributing its CSR to support prevention and spread of
COVID-19. Also, legal frameworks should be analyzed, and employee contracts may
need to be re-negotiated. As highlighted by Dentons [7], one of the world’s
leading law firms, employers need to understand and potentially revise their
policies of annual leave, leave without pay, employer’s exemptions from paying
wages, and the 15 days exemption from liability to provide work.
Despite our human instincts to endure crises and return to normal,
tragic events like a pandemic, war and famine alter systems in fundamentally
irrevocable ways. New beliefs and mindsets take shape and behaviors evolve.
This is as true for businesses as it is true for humans. We are entering a
Great Reset, and it's happening quickly. Many companies could be lost to the
economic fallout of the pandemic, and those that survive will most probably
exist in different forms. Employees working afar with less oversight will crave
the same autonomy going forward. As such, leadership remains a golden tool to
inspire, redirect and repurpose employees’ behavior and in the long run, those
of society for positive impact.
Timothy Sempewo ǀ IT Manager ǀ Minet Limited (Uganda)
Menyo Innocent ǀ Medical Radiographer ǀ Lead M-SCAN Uganda
References
- https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1WHO: what is COVID-19?
- Organization, W.H. Rolling updates on coronavirus disease (COVID-19). [Website] 9th April 2020 13th April 2020 [cited 2020 13th April 2020].
- WHO declares coronavirus crisis a pandemic. 2020.
- https://covid19.who.int: situation report
- Ng, K.H., M. Agius, and R. Zaman, The global economic crisis: effects on mental health and what can be done. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2013. 106(6): p. 211-214.
- Black swan theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
- DENTONS. Covid-19: possible approaches to managing employee – employer relations.2020 [cited 2020 21st April ]: Available from: https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2020/april/16/covid-19-possible-approaches-to-managing-employee-employer-relations
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