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CORONAVIRUSES

Coronaviruses are zoonotic diseases that jump from animals to humans.
There are at least known 7 variants that affect humans.
Four do cause mild illness (HCoV-OC43, HCoV-HKU1, HCoV-229E and HCoV-NL63), whereas 3 are known major causes of illness and deaths namely MERS-COV; SARS, and SARS-COV19, to affected individuals.

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Characteristics of zoonotic coronavirus strains�MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2,�and related diseases
	MERS-CoV	SARS-CoV	SARS-CoV-2
Disease	MERS	SARS	COVID-19
Outbreaks	2012, 2015, �2018	2002–2004	2019–ongoing �pandemic
Epidemiology
Date of first�identified case	June �2012	November �2002	December �2019
Location of first�identified case	Jeddah, �Saudi Arabia	Shunde, �China	Wuhan, �China
Age average	56	44	56
Sex ratio (M:F)	3.3:1	0.8:1	1.6:1
Confirmed cases	2494	8096	457,396,139
Deaths	858	774	6,064,022
Case fatality rate	37%	9.2%	1.32%
Symptoms
Fever	98%	99–100%	87.9%
Dry cough	47%	29–75%	67.7%
Dyspnea	72%	40–42%	18.6%
Diarrhea	26%	20–25%	3.7%
Sore throat	21%	13–25%	13.9%
Ventilatory use	24.5%	14–20%	4.1%

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a newly emergent coronavirus, and it is known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus�2 (SARS-CoV-2).
It was first recognized in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019.
SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans. It is the successor to SARS-CoV-1, the strain that caused the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.

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On 30 Jan 2020 WHO declared PHEIC
On 11 March 2020 WHO declared Pandemic of Covid19
Not a single country in the World is not affected by the Pandemic of Covid 19.
Available are interactive maps indicating the Millions of people affected all over the world in RT manner.
Globally

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THE SITUATION OF COVID19 IN SOMALIA

In Somalia the pandemic started in March 2020 with the first case from china. On 18 March 2020, 26,4100 cases with 1.361 deaths (CFR 5,1%) were reported. (WHO)
As of 16 March 2022, 2,335,560 vaccine doses were administered (WHO)
The available vaccines are from Astrazeneca, Sinopharm, Jhonson&Jhonson, Pfizer recently. (Not yet used), etc.
However, the vaccine utilization is very low
The socio-economic impact was very high with thousands of people put out of job, schools and universities locked down, travel and tourism were put on standstill.

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The pandemic has negatively impacted the economy of Somalia, as evidenced by the closure of businesses, movement restrictions and the disruptions of supply chains leading to loss of income for workers.
Vulnerable groups including, the poorest, informal sector workers, and youth have suffered disproportionately from reduced opportunities.

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Somalia’s economy contracted by an estimated 0.4 percent in 2020, as the country grappled with the triple shocks of Covi-19, floods, and locust infestations. (Somalia Economic Update 2020).
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the costs of not investing in a Public Health System as Somalia faced the Pandemic with weak health systems, and not stable politics.
To limit the negative Health impact of the Pandemic is required to improve the Health systems and put in place enough resources for saving lives in the emergency phase and adopting very solid mass testing, tracing and vaccination services.

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LESSONS LEARNT

The extreme fragility of the country’s health system.
Public Health should be the center of development as health individual🡪 productive
Need for establishing center for disaster and emergency Management🡪 resilience
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the costs of not investing in a Public Health System as Somalia faced the Pandemic with weak health systems, and not stable politics.
Workable Concerted efforts between doctors, religious leaders, business community, CSO, etc
Health professionals participating in the government decision forums alongside at least 13 different Line-line Ministries with the aim of limiting the spread of the pandemic.
The close collaboration between the Federal Minister and the State Health Ministries and distribution of the available resources with transparency.
In country Doctors and those in the Diaspora (with different background and experience and knowledge) all geared together to control the spread of the pandemics

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CONCLUSION

A tiny RNA virus created havoc all over the world for centuries.
Zoonotic diseases are presumed to be responsible for the future pandemics
One Health approach should be focused, and institutionalized and operationalized in the country.
A solid collaboration between health, livestock, agriculture and environment sectors is needed.
Now is the time.