Preparing healthcare facilities in subSaharan Africa for future outbreaks: insights from a multi-country digital self-assessment of COVID-19 preparedness.

Background Despite previous experience with epidemics, African healthcare systems were inadequately pre‑ pared and substantially impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Limited information about the level of COVID-19 preparedness of healthcare facilities in Africa hampers policy decision-making to fght future outbreaks in the region, while maintaining essential healthcare services running. Methods Between May–November 2020, we performed a survey study with SafeCare4Covid − a free digital selfassessment application − to evaluate the COVID-19 preparedness of healthcare facilities in Africa following World Health Organization guidelines. The tool assessed (i) COVID-19-related capabilities with 31 questions; and (ii) avail‑ ability of essential medical supplies with a 23-supplies checklist. Tailored quality improvement plans were provided after assessments. Information about facilities’ location, type, and ownership was also collected. Results Four hundred seventy-one facilities in 11 African countries completed the capability assessment; 412 also completed the supplies checklist. The average capability score on a scale of 0–100 (n=471) was 58.0 (interquartile range 40.0–76.0), and the average supplies score (n=412) was 61.6 (39.0–83.0). Both scores were signifcantly lower in rural (capability score, mean 53.6 [95%CI:50.3–57.0]/supplies score, 59.1 [55.5–62.8]) versus urban facilities (capabil‑ ity score, 65.2 [61.7–68.7]/supplies score, 70.7 [67.2–74.1]) (P<0.0001 for both comparisons). Likewise, lower scores were found for public versus private clinics, and for primary healthcare centres versus hospitals. Guidelines for triage and isolation, clinical management of COVID-19, staf mental support, and contact tracing forms were largely missing. Handwashing stations were partially equipped in 33% of facilities. The most missing medical supply was COVID-19 specimen collection material (71%), while 43% of facilities did not have N95/FFP2 respirators and 19% lacked medical masks. Conclusions A large proportion of public and private African facilities providing basic healthcare in rural areas, lacked fundamental COVID-19-related capabilities and life-saving personal protective equipment. Decentralization of epi‑ demic preparedness eforts in these settings is warranted to protect healthcare workers and patients alike in future epidemics. Digital tools are of great value to timely measure and improve epidemic preparedness of healthcare facilities, inform decision-making, create a more stakeholder-broad approach and increase health-system resilience for future disease outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]