Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All
but essential workers or those seeking food or
health care must stay home for weeks, maybe
longer. Rwanda, the first country in sub-Saharan
Africa to impose a lockdown, has extended it for
two weeks, a possible sign of things to come.
Even where family planning remains available,
providers say many women fear venturing out
and being beaten by security forces and accused
of defying the new restrictions. Meanwhile,
outreach services, the key to reaching rural
women, have largely stopped to avoid drawing
crowds and the risk of workers spreading the
virus from one community to another.
The International Planned Parenthood
Federation, or IPPF, in a new report Thursday
says more than one in five member clinics
around the world have closed because of the
pandemic and related restrictions. More than
5,000 mobile clinics across 64 countries have
closed. Most are in South Asia and Africa, but
Latin America and Europe have seen hundreds
of closures as well.
From Pakistan to Germany to Colombia, IPPF
members say they have scaled down HIV testing
and gender-based violence response work and
face shortages of contraceptives.
“They have needs that cannot wait,” IPPF
director-general Alvaro Bermejo said of
women in a statement, pleading for help from
national governments to help provide personal
protective equipment to allow for intimate care.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild to
moderate symptoms such as fever and cough.
But for some, especially older adults and the
infirm, it can cause pneumonia and death.Image: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi