Pretoria – South Africa has grappled with the continent’s largest share of COVID-19 infections since the onset of the pandemic. Throughout the crisis, the country ramped up pandemic control measures to effectively curb cases and deaths and protect people’s health. In support of South Africa’s efforts, WHO deployed a 35-member expert team to help bolster the response at provincial and district levels.

The expert team comprised epidemiologists, experts in infection prevention and control, vaccination, clinical care, data management, risk communication and community engagement.

Key areas that have been critical in South Africa’s pandemic response include strengthened outbreak control coordination, a decentralized approach which entails deploying epidemiologists to the districts, tailoring response in hotspots, generating local epidemiological data to monitor resurgence as well as rolling out vaccinations at the grassroots. The efforts paid off, with cases, admissions, and deaths declining over the five pandemic waves. 

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