| Overview : COVID-19 is more than a health crisis, with far reaching social, economic and political impacts, especially for countries that are resource-constrained and least equipped to cope, like Malawi. Malawi has experienced its second wave of COVID-19 and latest updates from the Public Health Institute of Malawi show that the rise in cases was at a much steeper rate than experienced in the first wave. From December 14th, 2020 to January 4th, 2020, Malawi had similar rates of infection that took four months to reach in the first wave, indicating an infection rate that is eight times what was recorded in the first wave. By the 13th of January 2021, Malawi recorded 591 new cases and 21 deaths. Malawi cannot rely on the same response capacities it had in the first and second waves. The COVID virus continues to mutate and there is news of fresh waves of infection in Europe and other parts of the world. As we approach the festive season, the likely hood of another wave of COVID hitting Malawi is quite high. Without an expansion of its response capacity, Malawi will suffer extensive losses in lives and livelihoods, with negative economic and social effects on the young and vulnerable. With the loss of two cabinet Ministers to COVID 19 on the 11th and 12th of January 2021. The president of Malawi declared a state of disaster and stated that this could be elevated to a state of emergency if the infection rates and deaths continue to rise as seen. COVID 19 has been officially declared a disaster in Malawi, a disaster which is further complicated by a weak health supply chain system. The country suffers shortages in the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect both health workers and the general public. Where these PPEs, such as face masks, are available in the market, they are not affordable to the poor and the vulnerable. Supporting the local manufacturing of PPEs will improve availability for health workers, the poor and vulnerable. UNDP’s current efforts is supporting local production of PPEs in Universities and with private companies. This intervention, however, needs more investment to ramp up production to meet the exponential increase in demand for PPEs due to the second wave, especially by frontline health workers. When we look at the production capacity for PPEs and other COVID 19 supplies in the country, the capacity is insufficient to produce enough products to stem the rate of infections and hospitalizations to prevent deaths. There are gaps in knowledge and skill on production management, sales and marketing, quality assurance which affects production efficiency. UNDP has invested an estimated $250,000 in supporting the local production of PPEs and other COVID 19 supplies. UNDP has been working with universities in Malawi to produce COVID supplies locally and also build their capacity in production management and optimization We are now extending this knowledge further to vocational institutions and provide opportunities for personnel from the universities to transfer the knowledge they have to vocational institutions across the country. |
