Zambia
There have been 1089 COVID-19 reported cases (GMT 13.44 05.06.20) in Zambia and there are concerns that the virus could overwhelm the health system. The return of Ebola in the bordering Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also remains a concern.
Five Emergency Medical Team (EMT) members have arrived in Zambia to assist the Zambian Government with their COVID-19 response. The team are working closely with the WHO, the Ministry of Health, and the National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) to assist senior health officials with their plans to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and the national roll-out of infection prevention and control (IPC).
The UK Emergency Medical Team  response includes:
- Supporting Rapid Response teams and health facilities in the testing and tracing procedures, including community mass-screening, clinical care and infection prevention and control practices for COVID-19.
- Training and mentoring local health care staff in the correct treatment of COVID-19 and proper use of PPE.
- Reviewing community engagement procedures and reporting tools.
- Assessing supply chain and logistics to ensure equipment and supplies can reach the areas most affected by the outbreak.
The EMT team lead and UK Med Programme Manager, Lizzi Marmont and Ngoni Nyambawaro a Field Coordinator and Emergency Preparedness and Response Specialist arrived in April.
Their three colleagues, Dr Morah Chibuzor Emmanuel a Monitoring and Evaluation and Epidemiology specialist from Nigeria, Zeno Masareka from Uganda and Jude Akuechiama from Nigeria, both nurses, arrived mid-May and will be in quarantine until the end of the month.
Hear from EMT Team Lead Lizzi Marmont and Emergency Preparedness Specialist Ngoni Nyambawaro from the field. Lizzi Marmont led the response to the measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019 and joined UK Med to respond to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. Ngoni is from Zimbabwe and also worked on the West Africa Ebola response.