Engaging communities to prepare for COVID-19
11 June 2020
There are only a handful of places that have not reported cases of COVID-19. Many of them are in the Pacific. American Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Pitcairn Island, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Wallis and Futuna are still virus-free.
As early as January, the Pacific started to step up efforts to prepare for COVID-19, with support from WHO.
Cases started to be reported from mid-March in Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands and Papua New Guinea.
None of the countries and areas in the Pacific is complacent.
Tokelau
Training on Infection Prevention in Tokelau, March 16, 2020
Dr Durgavasini Devanath, of WHO, travelled 30 hours on a boat from Samoa to Tokelau to help plan and prepare for COVID-19.
“Tokelau is a communal society, so everyone is stepping up to protect the community. People were committed in the training and the whole community took efficient action. For example, we received updates and pictures from an atoll we just left a day earlier on how they were refurbishing quarantine and isolation facilities.”
Cook Islands
Training in Cook Islands, March 3, 2020
The WHO Health Systems team leader in the Pacific, Dr Akeem Ali, was re-assigned to support the government’s COVID-19 preparedness plan. In early March, in response to the government’s request to train healthcare staff on infection prevention and control and case management for COVID-19, Dr Akeem headed to the Cook Islands.
“Working in health systems means that WHO can tailor our help so that we build a COVID-19 plan that is focused on the local reality, the priority needs, what will make a response successful and also consider some of the issues the country will have to deal with in the medium term.”
Niue
Handwashing training for school kids, March 10, 2020
“I think I have met most of the 1600 people living in Niue and trained half of them on the correct way of hand-washing,” says Min Tanuvasa Lene, a registered nurse and health advisor working with WHO in Niue and Samoa.
“There was an incredible sense of unity, support, urgency and commitment from the Ministry of Health and the community to engage with WHO to help them prepare and navigate the threat of COVID-19. The healthcare workers trust WHO as the credible source of information and support. l. It also made it easier to continue to support them remotely now that we are limited with our travel options.”
Samoa
PPEs arriving in Samoa’s Health Emergency Operation Centre, April 1, 2020
With Samoa on the cusp of declaring the end of its measles outbreak, the government immediately started to inform the public on how to effectively stop the spread of COVID-19. Personal protective equipment (PPE) consisting of gloves, N95 respirators, surgical masks, goggles and thermometers was sent to Samoa and many other countries by the Joint Incident Management Team (JIMT), to ensure frontline staff could safely manage up to 100 COVID-19 cases