Luanda, ANGOLA, April 14 - The United Nations (UN) system in Angola will provide roughly 16 million US dollars to complement the country’s effort to combat covid-19, the UN's resident coordinator in Angola, Paolo Balladelli, said on Tuesday. ,

The UN official made the statement at the end of a meeting granted by the Angolan President, João Lourenço.

Paolo Balladeli explained that the pandemic forced the reprogramming of the resources of the cooperation plan with Angola, being 12,5 million US dollars to support the national response against Covid -19 and 3.5 million US dollars for the food security of the populations in the provinces of Namibe, Huila, Cunene and Cuando Cubango.

Balladeli also said that the resources are already available and will serve to ensure technical assistance, through knowledge transfer and internal capacity-building, considering essential the improvement of coordination mechanisms with partners.

The UN official considered the state of emergency in the country a well thought and timely measure, fundamentally because physical distancing is the most important weapon to prevent the spread of the virus.

In the meantime, he stressed that the isolation can cause economic and social difficulties, thus advocating financial transfers and acceleration of food production, such as wheat, cassava, maize, eggs and chicken to ensure food security for the population and access to water.

He also said that he discussed with Angolan president the possibility of internal production of masks to reduce local infection, even with means available such as cloth and home-made.

The UN envoy also spoke of the need for greater protection for health professionals, as well as women and children.

He advised the use of hospitals only for patients who really have breathing difficulties; otherwise they would be infected or re-infected.

The senior UN official advocated accelerating the massive use of tests and isolating those confirmed, follow up with people who had contact with exposed individuals.

Although there are no studies on the behavior of the virus in Africa, he hopes that conditions such as temperature will mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the continent.

Paolo Balladelli urged the strengthening of prevention measures for fear of severe period in late April and May.

He also called for the fight against discrimination against refugees.

Angola has registered 19 cases of covid-19, with four recovered and two dead.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.