Leveraging Africa's preparedness towards the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response in many African countries has been swift, progressive, and adaptable, despite resource limitations.1 As the novel coronavirus infection spread through Wuhan (China) in January, 2020, African countries rapidly acquired de novo severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing capacity so that by March, most could confirm COVID-19. Airport screening began early and efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have typically emphasised case identification, contact tracing and isolation, handwashing and hand hygiene, and several social distancing and stay-at-home measures with, in some cases, lockdowns of exceedingly high risk areas (appendix).