AFRICA’S GOVERNANCE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 | PRELIMINARY REPORT 2020 Box 6: Repatriation of nationals in Seychelles Seychelles In mitigating the impact of the outbreak on its citizens, the Government of Seychelles established a strong political and public health leadership focusing mainly on early monitoring of international and regional trends, continuously producing and updating advisories for people not to travel to affected areas, developing an effective multi-sectoral inter-sectoral outlook developed over recent years. The country’s response also relied on a robust health system, with a strong integrated disease surveillance and response infrastructure, as well as close collaboration with key partners, i.e. Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Employment, Attorney General Office, Police and Military. The country’s overall response benefitted from an existing National Department for Disaster and Risk Management with a National Disaster Master Plan and infrastructure, which quickly kicked in to reinforce the health sector response. Additionally, the Department of Foreign Affairs and its satellite embassies mobilised international assistance and facilitated importation and transportation of vital medical supplies, consular services, and repatriation of Seychellois nationals. To ensure compliance with precautionary measures, a broad sensitisation campaign was launched with support from artists and other opinion leaders. Some African governments such as South Africa, Uganda, Kenya and Liberia have provided incentives to support local industries to re-tool and produce affordable protective and infection prevention products. This has also fostered the use of 3D printing of medical masks and mass production of facemasks. Similarly, some governments have adopted country-specific, context-specific coding of threat level alerts for COVID-19. The alert level defines the parameters of authority. This is a critical measure for transparency and accountability of the state. The Government of South Africa, for instance, has responded to the pandemic by centralising information updates through the establishment of a governmental information portal and regular nationwide briefings on COVID 19 7. 6 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/senegaltrials-1-COVID-19-test-kit-200428132313740.html; Tunisia -http://www.santetunisie.rns.tn/images/ plan-preliminaire.pdf; Soa Tome and Principe- http:// ms.gov.st ; https://www.moh.gov.zm/?page_id=6366; https://www.moh.go.tz/en/; https://moh.gov.rw/index. php?id=188; https://www.health.gov.mw/index.php/ downloads/category/7-covid19-information(Accessed 28.04.2020). https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2020/04/28/update-onCOVID-19-28th-april-2020-with-media-presentation/ 45