Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has left many governments across the world searching for effective
responses to the challenges their citizens face. The paper adopted a qualitative research approach,
drawing from an extensive review of literature, analysed through thematic analysis, to explore
Africa’s economic response as well as challenges faced by the African health systems in addressing
the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from thematic analysis, pervasive poverty, protracted wars,
and entrenched underdevelopment are fundamental considerations in Africa that impact
intervention measures towards COVID-19. The thematic analysis also found that inadequate
human capital, support for healthcare, weak leadership and management, and lack of quality
data were detrimental to Africa’s healthcare delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To
improve COVID-19 health response in Africa, public health policymakers can consider adopting
the World Health Organization (WHO) national guidelines on reporting, data management, and
public accountability on state health disbursed resources
