48 hours. That’s the amount of time I had to find a plane ticket from Juba to Freetown. The Sierra Leonean government had made a rather sudden decision to close their borders and ban air travel altogether, giving travelers a notice of 2 days. There were rumors that South Sudan would be following suit. Soon enough, Juba officially shut its airport 3 days later, joining the list of African countries in doing so. For 2 countries (South Sudan and Sierra Leone) that have no official COVID 19 cases until now, I was rather stunned by the flurry of measures. But perhaps that is the secret ingredient.

As of today, the continent has recorded 1,400 cases across 43 countries, meaning 11 African countries remain virus-free. Out of this 1,400, bulk of the cases are accounted by 3 countries: South Africa (554), Egypt (366) and Algeria (201). This means that the remaining 40 countries in Africa have merely 279 cases at the moment. Compare this to the United States that is dealing with 35,000 cases or Italy with 64,000 cases.

 But this all seems very counter-intuitive. On a regular day, 8 direct flights operate between China and African nations (and not to mention countless others through transits in Addis Ababa or Nairobi). Given the amount of Chinese influence across Africa, why wasn’t COVID 19 exported here first? Or given the largely fragile public health system across the continent, why isn’t the virus cruising at lightning speed causing irreparable damage like Ebola did? The answer lies in “containment”.

Africa certainly got a head-start in this pandemic. But the head-start means nothing if there is inertia or inaction. It was understood early on that air-travel is one of the biggest avenues for transmission. As soon cases were detected, countries like Kenya admirably chose to shut down their airports, not just from COVID hotspots but from across the world, making exceptions just for Kenyan nationals. Even nationals who returned were forced to go through a mandatory 14-day quarantine period at hotels close to the airport. Now almost all countries in Africa have followed suit. Note that this is very different from “self-quarantine” which is being adopted by Western nations whereby the individual’s sense of moral responsibility could determine if someone else gets infected or not.

Apart from forced quarantine, an attitude of risk aversion was becoming evident as flights and passengers were being turned back. In Juba, for instance, a flight carrying passengers from Addis Ababa was turned back after it landed as the South Sudanese government did not want to risk any infections (Ethiopia at that point had less than 5 cases). Similarly, prior to the airport shutdown, 4 Japanese nationals boarded a flight from Monrovia to Freetown. Liberian authorities had seen one of them displaying symptoms and had alerted airport authorities in Freetown. Upon landing, the 4 passengers were sent back in the same aircraft while the remaining passengers were forced into 14-day quarantine at government-mandated facility near the airport.

Apart from restricting air travel, other measures have been put in place. Schools have been shut, public and religious gatherings are being regulated. Wherever possible, offices, supermarkets and housing compounds have sanitizer dispensers and hand washing facilities that every person is required to use before entering.

But not all is hunky dory. Powerful people (mostly high ranking government officials) are exploiting the loopholes within the system to gain waivers from mandatory quarantine after travelling to hotspots and later test positive for COVID (Cameroon is a case in point). Such individuals can singlehandedly nullify all the containment efforts.

This is all to say that every case counts here. Perhaps this sense of urgency comes from a dismal realization that even the most advanced healthcare systems like that of Spain and Italy are collapsing from COVID. Should the virus hit this continent with the same vigor, the consequences will be nothing short of disastrous. There are other considerations as well. From a cultural standpoint, social distancing would be extremely difficult to implement once things escalate. From an economic standpoint, aid cannot be expected from the usual donors as they are dealing with their own national crises.

With these complex considerations at play, there is only one solution: prevention. The petrifying consequence of what would happen if prevention fails or is failed by powerful individuals with poor judgement is yet to be known. But after this crisis passes, there is a lesson or two that the world needs to learn from Africa’s playbook about containment in early stages of a pandemic.

Until then, I hope everyone is staying safe wherever they are, washing their hands and staying calm! After my botched travel plans, I’m going about life in Juba armed with hand-wash and hope.