TITLE:
Examining Factors Contributing to Eritrea’s Successful COVID-19 Response
AUTHORS:
Fikresus (Fikrejesus) Amahazion
KEYWORDS:
Africa, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Eritrea, Health
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.2,
February
24,
2021
ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic has
been one of the greatest global crises in decades. To date, around the world
tens of millions of cases have been confirmed, nearly two million people have
died, and the livelihoods of billions have been greatly affected. While
COVID-19 has been a truly global problem, infection and death rates in many
African countries have been much lower than originally feared. One COVID-19
success story is Eritrea, a young, developing country in Northeast Africa that,
by late December 2020, reported less than 1000 positive cases and one death due
to COVID-19. However, despite its relative success, little focus has been
devoted to Eritrea’s response. How did it manage to keep COVID-19 at bay and
what factors contributed to its success? Based on several different research
methods, the present study finds that, notwithstanding limited resources, Eritrea
has managed to respond to COVID-19 with relative efficiency and keep the virus
at bay. The country’s general success has been based upon a number of different factors.