National Emergency Coordination Center; Points of entry and quarantine centers joint assessment report - June 2020
- Countries
- Ethiopia
- Sources
- Govt. Ethiopia
- Publication date
Executive summary
A multi-cluster assessment was conducted from June 15 – 20, 2020 in six regions and one city council. The teams visited eighteen quarantine centers (QCs) and twelve points of entry (POEs).
Below are the major findings and recommendations:
Coordination:
• The assessment revealed that coordination mechanism has been set up in most visited areas although there is no uniformity in the naming, structure, membership and scope of activity. This has a direct impact on services that are provided at the sites.
• The National Emergency Coordination Center (NECC) is working with the regional governments to strengthen regional ECCs and Incident Command Posts (ICPs). The assessment also found minimal engagement or absence of humanitarian partners in most quarantine centers and point of entries. All relevant partner needs to engage at all level of coordination.
Food:
• Although food is distributed regularly in quarantine centers, emergency food is almost unavailable at POEs except some providing biscuits and water. Furthermore, in almost all quarantine centers, pregnant and lactating women, children and infants and people with chronic health problems are not receiving supplementary food.
• The food cluster should therefore provide support to meet the emergency needs of various groups of people at all points of entry.
Shelter / NFI:
• Temporary shelters and isolation units is a major concern specially at points of entry in Dewele and Metema.
• The assessment also found that points of entry that have temporary shelters and isolation units lack basic facilities such as light, water, food, latrine, waste disposal, PPE and security.
• Furthermore, most of the points of entry do not have the mandatory non-food items. Nonfood item is being better supplied in quarantine centers though there some sites report in insufficient quantity. All relevant partners need to address the needs and gaps.
WASH:
• The assessment teams identified major gaps in WASH at the points of entry as well as quarantine centers such as inadequate or limited access to water supply for drinking, personal hygiene and cooking.
• Nearly 69 per cent of points of entry do not have safe drinking water, and 77 per cent do not have latrines. Close to 50 per cent of the quarantine centers visited have poor hygiene in the latrines and 71 per cent do not have showers.
• Relevant partners including the WASH cluster are strongly encouraged to take action to address these immediate needs.
Health and Nutrition:
• The assessment found that daily temperature screening is done in less than 50% of the quarantine centers. Also, isolation of suspected cases, timely lab results for suspected cases as well as those that have finished their mandatory quarantine centers are becoming an issue especially at the points of entry and quarantine centers.
• Nutrition follow-up has been done only in few regional quarantine centers.
• Relevant partners including MoH/EPHI and WHO are strongly encouraged to address the above issues.
Protection:
• The assessment found protection needs of vulnerable groups, including women, persons with disabilities, elderly people, adolescent girls, and unaccompanied and separated children.
• Referral mechanisms to detect and treat GBV/SEA cases are only available in limited sites.
• It was also highlighted that there is no complaint and feedback mechanism for returnees.
Returnees in 71% of the quarantine centers identified areas (specially shared or outside latrines) as being unsafe. Protection clusters partners should strongly engage to address needs and gaps.
Risk communication:
• Only 15 per cent of the points of entry and 59 per cent of the quarantine centers have received COVID-19 risk communication materials.
• Only 35 per cent of quarantine centers reported that they have clear messages about the COVID-19 risks.
• The assessment found that these pose a great risk when the returnees integrate to their communities. Relevant partners are strongly encouraged to support the dissemination of risk communication materials.