Heads of State the East African Community are on Wednesday April 15, scheduled to hold an extraordinary summit on the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, according to communique signed by Dr. Vincent Biruta, the EAC Chairperson of Council of Ministers. The summit will be held virtually via video conference on Wednesday this week. With the world currently grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, regional cooperation in the aspect will feature in the summit as countries seek ways to ensure that they curb the spread as well as maintain the flow of goods and services. The Heads of States summit follows a meeting by EAC Ministers for Health and others responsiblefor regional affairs held in March via video conference which was chaired by Dr. Daniel Ngamije, Rwandas Minister of Health. The March meeting adopted 12 resolutions to curb the spread of the virus as well as mitigate impacts in the region. Among the resolutions adopted include implementing mandatory quarantine for 14 days for all travelers to the region to avoid imported cases by implementing screening procedures at all border points. During the meeting, it was agreed that all EAC regional face-to-face meetings are to be suspended with the blocs organs and institutions being urged to adopt modern technology such as video-conferences. The ministers also directed all countries to implement 100 per cent exit and entry screenings by applying the multilayer mechanism to avoid some loopholes, such as transit passengers. Maintenance of free movements of goods and services in the region was agreed upon with all partner states urged to ensure that trucks or vehicles carrying goods abide by health requirements. Countries had also been urged to establish and implement a surveillance system to monitor crew health and enable contact tracing as well as strengthen information sharing through press conferences and linkage of national task forces to facilitate quick response, continuous reporting and to facilitate contact tracing for potential COVID- 19 exposed persons. The Secretariats bloc had previously agreed on the deployment of mobile laboratories and coronavirus test kits to all partner states in response to the global pandemic Rwanda is the current Chair of the summit and is expected to steer this week’s meeting.
