Across the world, health systems have been put under extreme pressure due to the spread of COVID-19. Ben Horton sat down (remotely) with two doctors, working in Germany and Zambia.
Tell me about the public mood towards the coronavirus response in your countries?
Mwape: Before this pandemic, Zambia had already been dealing with major public health challenges such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria. The coming of COVID-19 has added a big burden to that list. Initial predictions were made that if Africa became the epicentre of the pandemic, many people would lose their lives. So the government had to be very alert. They had to heighten the levels of public surveillance, greatly increase laboratory capacity to carry out the required tests, and had to secure significant increases in health funding.
