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Table 1 10 priority interventions for securing the health and mental wellbeing of frontline healthcare workers in the COVID-19 response in Africa

From: COVID-19 in Africa: care and protection for frontline healthcare workers

 1. Secure supplies of PPE of good quality.

 2. Capacity development on PPE use and infection control more generally.

 3. Research examining protection and support interventions for healthcare workers in Africa, including feasible approaches to repeated SARS-CoV-2 testing.

 4. Prioritize healthcare workers for SARS-CoV-2 testing, beds in ICU and other medical wards, drug and vaccine trials, and therapeutics when these become available.

 5. Politicians and other public figures to visit healthcare workers, acknowledge their commitment and sacrifices, and address any negative perceptions towards providers [50].

 6. Provide food and daily living supplies for healthcare workers, which save them time, but also demonstrate society’s appreciation of their work [51].

 7. Incorporate a range of healthcare worker cadres into the response, especially community healthcare workers and HIV counsellors.

 8. Creative interventions to reduce risks of infection, such as ‘Eagle-Eye Observers’ who are dedicated full-time staff charged with observing and correcting infection control errors, [52] a task which lay people could potentially do as this is largely based on checklists.

 9. Finances to cover the costs of funerals for healthcare workers.

 10. ‘Risk allowances’ to compensate healthcare workers for the risks they take and to motivate staff to continue to work.