East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 30th April, 2020: The East African Community has unveiled a comprehensive COVID-19 Response Plan to reinforce measures to protect and prevent further spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic within the region.
The response plan was developed following a directive by the Joint Meeting of Ministers responsible for Health, Trade and EAC Affairs held via Video Conference, which directed the EAC Secretariat to finalize and submit the EAC Regional COVID-19 Response Plan to the Partner States.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 30 April, 2020: Human mobility across countries, largely driven by air travel, has been one of the main vectors that facilitated the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the world, and many of the confirmed COVID-19 cases in the EAC region have also had a history of air travel.
Airports in the EAC region enhanced their preparedness and response measures early and have been able to intercept several COVID-19 susceptible travelers through intensified surveillance and screening. Yet, airports continue to be high risk areas for the spread of infectious diseases.
…committee activities and parliamentary business to continue online via video-conferencing
East African Legislative Assembly, Arusha, April 27th 2020: With the region and globe consolidating in the fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has resolved to hold its 4th Meeting of its 3rd Session in a different format. For the first time in its history, the Assembly’s Sitting is to be held virtually in the EAC Partner States. A number of key reports top the agenda of the 3-week virtual meeting, to be presided over by the Speaker, Rt Hon Ngoga Karoli Martin.
The Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution is to consider the report on the EAC Integrity and Anti-Corruption Bill, before it is to be presented at the virtual plenary anticipated for Thursday, May 7th, 2020. Other key reports to be tabled during the period are that of the Committee on Accounts on Capacity Building Workshop and the Report of the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources on the On-Spot Assessment of the activities of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC).
East African Court of Justice, 27 April, 2020: The East African Court Justice (EACJ) through a video conference held an extra ordinary Plenary for Judges and resolved to roll out online hearings, delivery of Rulings and Judgments next month May, 2020, after test run.
The Plenary was chaired by the President of the Court, Hon Justice Dr Emmanuel Ugirashebuja. In his opening remarks the Judge President congratulated his fellow Judges for having accepted to go digital as a gateway for EACJ becoming an e-court.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 27th April, 2020: EAC Partner States have been urged to treat truck drivers and crew who test positive for COVID-19 in the host Partner State rather than deporting them to the country of origin as this will result in further spread of the disease.
Through a 17-page document titled ‘EAC Administrative Guidelines to Facilitate Movement of Goods and Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic’ sent to Partner States, the Secretariat calls on Partner States to enforce mandatory screening or testing of truck drivers and crew at border posts and undertake mobile monitoring during transit at selected inland points.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 23rd April, 2020:The East African Community Secretariat has handed over a mobile laboratory containing equipment and consumables including COVID-19 testing kits to the Republic of Burundi at the Kobero border post on the Burundi/Tanzania border.
Prof. Joseph Nyandwi, the Director General of the National Institute for Public Health in Burundi, received the mobile laboratory consignment on behalf of the country's Minister of Public Health and Fight Against AIDS, Dr. Thadee Ndikumana.
Prof. Nyandwi thanked the EAC Secretariat for the support which he said comes in at a time the country and the world was fighting to curb the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 15th April, 2020: The East African Community under the Mobile Laboratory Project has today deployed nine (9) mobile laboratories and Coronavirus test kits to all EAC Partner States in a bid to detect and respond to highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and Ebola.
Speaking to the media while flagging off the mobile laboratories and equipment, EAC Secretary General, Amb Liberat Mfumukeko said tha each Partner State would receive a four wheel drive vehicle fitted with laboratory and ICT equipment, as well as all the necessary consumables for a fully functional laboratory with the capacity to conduct tests for Ebola and the Coronavirus in addition to other pathogens.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 15th April 2020: The 18th Extraordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State which had been purposely convened to discuss the ongoing novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Wednesday, 15th April, 2020 has been postponed to a later date.
The 18th Extraordinary Summit, which was to be held via Video Conferencing, had been called by the Rwandan President and Chairperson of the Summit, H.E. Paul Kagame, specifically to exchange on the regional response against COVID-19, including its fiscal, economic and social consequences on the Community.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 14 April 2020: The COVID-19 global pandemic is not only a major health crisis that challenges health systems across the globe. It has far reaching ramifications on economies worldwide. The medium- and long-term effects resulting from the measures taken to slow down and contain the spread of the disease remain unforeseeable.
The East African Community region is no exception. On a positive note, the free movement of goods and services in the EAC has been maintained and the supply situation for staple food and basic necessities is currently secured. However, on the negative side, enterprises across sectors including the agro-industry and particularly the informal sector are suffering. Value chains have been disrupted and tourism, a major source of income in the region, has come to a complete stand-still.
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 6th April, 2020: As you are aware, the People of the Republic of Rwanda and the International Community, commemorates the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda every 7th of April.
We wish however to inform you that owing to the underway COVID-19 Pandemic coupled with Kwibuka26 guidelines from the Government of Rwanda and EAC guidance on public gatherings during this Corona Crisis, this year we will not have at EAC Headquarters the usual physical commemoration activity with a big crowd of people. In this period around the world, people are uniting to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections and keep their neighbors safe. East African is thus no exception.
