Hightlights

• Phase three of the response strategy to COVID-19 in Cameroon was closed on 22 August 2020 with 20,303 confirmed cases since the onset of the pandemic, including 18,983 recoveries and 415 deaths as of 14 September 2020.
• 83 pregnant women are confirmed positive to COVID-19 as of 14 September 2020, including two deaths essentially in the North West region.
• On 17 August 2020, the Minister of Secondary Education instructed to start the 2020/2021 school year registrations for classes to resume on 5 October 2020 within the novel coronavirus environment.
• As of 31 August 2020, over 3,295 contestants to the Chadian Baccalaureate examination had been screened at the Cameroon-Chad border in Kousseri, including only one positive case. They were returning from Ndjamena where they wrote the examination starting on 21 August 2020.
• The Tignere Health District in the Adamaoua region recorded its first positive cases since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic on 29 August.
• Due to the resumption of commercial flight operations in most West and Central Africa countries, World Food Programme global air passenger service has been temporally suspended.

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Situation Overview

On 22 August 2020, the Ministry of Health in Cameroon closed phase three of the response strategy to COVID-19 in Cameroon after an evaluation of the five pillars that supported it. The same five pillars (Coordination, Communication and community engagement, Monitoring, Rapid Intervention and Intervention Teams and investigations, Points of entry and Laboratories) were renewed for phase four of the response which started on 23 August 2020. Indicators of key performance and level of activity will be produced and collected according to a predefined frequency at the level of each health district in the country.

Since the onset of the pandemic, 83 pregnant women tested positive to COVID-19 in Cameroon, including two deaths that occurred in the North West region, as of 14 September 2020. This might be a result of the ongoing conflict in the region that jeopardizes civilians’ access to health facilities and health care. In addition, the rumors of a COVID-19 vaccine being tested on people in hospitals made many pregnant women leave hospitals.

Schools will resume in earnest nationwide on 5 October 2020 as instructed by the Minister of Secondary Education Professor Nalova Lyonga. Parents and school personnel are worried that children could catch the virus with the resumption of classes. Barely a month to school resumption, Pubic Health officials are working on new approaches to control the spread of the virus. Over 3,295 students including 3,072 Cameroonians and 223 Chadians have returned from Ndjamena where they wrote the Chadian Baccalaureate examination starting on 21 August 2020. Several weeks earlier, Chad responded favorably to a request made by the Cameroonian Embassy in Chad to lift the border closure measure for this special occasion. Back from the examination, these students have been screened, including one positive case as of 2 September 2020.

The Faro and Déo division in the Adamaoua region joined the list of administrative units affected by the pandemic in the country. This happened after a massive screening campaign launched on 28 August 2020 by the Head of the Tignere Health Disctrict. The screening resulted in 12 positive cases as of 9 September 2020. The previous apparent absence of cases in the Tignere health district since the outbreak of COVID-19 had been questioned. Out of the nine health districts in the region, Banyo and Bankim are the only districts that remain free of cases.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has released the report of its worldwide global service intervention under the framework of the global humanitarian response plan. Due to the resumption of commercial operations in most West and Central Africa countries, the WFP global air passenger service has been temporally suspended. In total, 1,184 flights were conducted for 21,166 passengers to 64 destinations worldwide. To date, 56,823 cubic meters of cargo have been shipped on behalf of 55 organizations in 167 countries through UNHAS. The month of August 2020 saw the largest shipments to date due to the large volumes of supplies becoming available. In Cameroon, 548 passengers flew between 26 May and 19 August 2020 in 19 flights, an average of 28 passengers per flight.