Country Landscape and MTaPS’ Support 

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Senegal needed priority assistance to handle the influx of COVID-19 patients in health facilities and train health workers on infection prevention and control (IPC), including how to use personal protective equipment (PPE). USAID MTaPS supported the Government of Senegal, and the Ministry of Health and Social Action (MSAS) in particular, to address these gaps and scale up their response, leveraging the program’s ongoing support to the government in implementing its Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) activities to contain antimicrobial resistance in the country. 

Additionally, Senegal launched the COVID-19 vaccination on February 23, 2021. MTaPS is assisting the national government and regional authorities to develop management guidelines and is providing field support for the organization of mass vaccination campaigns.

Indicators as of September 2023

*Support to health facilities includes mentoring, supervision, organizational development, and producing guidelines

1467

Number of workers trained on COVID-19-related IPC and/or WASH

1185*

Number of health facilities supported for IPC and/or WASH for COVID-19

1943

Number of people trained on COVID-19 vaccine-related topic

 

Select Highlights

Infection Prevention and Control

  • Assisted with conducting COVID-19 IPC assessments and designing and implementing IPC action plans in 48 facilities in the 3 most affected regions (Dakar, Thiès, and Diourbel), improving their compliance with the WHO COVID-19 scorecard. Main outputs included:

           - Training strategies combining training of trainers and on-the job training at health facilities with virtual IPC courses

           - Mentored facility staff on continuous quality improvement, supervision, and monitoring compliance with best IPC practices

  • Monitored day-to-day activities at 22 targeted health facilities, including contact tracing, surveillance, data analysis, case management, and IPC to contain the spread of the virus and protect health workers and patients.
  • Built capacity for decontamination and dealing with infections at the community level through:  
    • Standardization and adaptation of monitoring tools for the decontamination of treatment centers, households, and non-hospital facilities 
    • Training of staff on decontamination measures such as biowaste management, donning and doffing of PPE, and hand washing 
    • Between August and September 2020, 985 decontamination and disinfection sessions were carried out—859 in Dakar, 99 in Thiès, and 27 in Diourbel. Intervention sites included homes, morgues, mosques, and health care facilities.
    • Communications campaigns to raise awareness and minimize stigmatization—Read more.
Photo-3

Decontamination of community health workers during PPE removal. Photo credit: Mame Mbaye, MTaPS Senegal

Covid Vaccine Deployment

  • Supported the development of 13 COVID-19 vaccination micro plans to identify and plan COVID-19 vaccination activities at the regional and district level, and put them into action to reach priority population groups. With the adoption of the micro plan template, and to jumpstart the COVID-19 vaccination, the Ministry’s Expanded Vaccination Program (PEV) requested a nationwide development of micro plans in all medical regions and health districts.
  • Provided field support for organizing mass vaccination campaigns designed to vaccinate as many people as possible in three to seven days. Read more.
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Photo.2252022

 

 

 

People waiting for their vaccines during the November 4–5, 2021, mass vaccination campaign.

Photo credit: Georges Yameogo

Partners include:

  • Senegal Ministry of Health and Social Action
  • UNICEF
  • WHO
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