This archive report was first published on 23 August 2020.
On August 21, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made a stark warning about corruption in the procurement of Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPEs) during a press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland.
"If health workers work without PPEs, we are risking their lives, and that also risks the lives of the people they serve. It is criminal, and it is murder, and it has to stop," he said.
His remarks came in the wake of local concerns regarding corruption and funds wastage in Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa)'s purchase of PPEs for health workers and other people.
Dr. Tedros also expressed hope that the coronavirus pandemic will end in two years, drawing a parallel with the Spanish flu, which killed an estimated 50 million people from 1918 to 1919.
However, he noted that the closely-knit social system across the world has given the virus a chance to spread rapidly from person to person as well as across communities.
Prof. Mark Walport of the United Kingdom's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) also weighed in, stating that Covid-19 is not yet over and will likely be with us forever in some form or another.
Meanwhile, in Kenya, protests erupted in Nairobi's Uhuru Park over alleged corruption in the procurement of Covid-19 supplies, with demonstrators demanding the arrest and prosecution of individuals behind companies that charged inflated prices for PPEs.
As the country grapples with the pandemic, doctors in Nairobi began a strike on August 22, 2020, to demand better working conditions and adequate safety measures to protect them from infection.
