In less than a week, 16 000 Somalis called into the government’s new coronavirus hotline. Dr Jihan Ali works there, advising callers and collecting and providing data to colleagues.
As cases began to spread around Africa, she received a call from Abdi Barud, an adviser at the office of the prime minister, to participate in the government’s national call centre.
The team at the call centre is a mix of doctors, medical students, analysts and mathematicians. Their roles vary from advising those calling in to analysing data and information. When people call in and report their symptoms, these are noted down and then decisions are made about whether the case is an emergency and needs to be admitted to hospital, or if they need to isolate themselves and so need to be instructed on what actions to take. Her role primarily centres on collecting this information, analysing the data and providing it to senior colleagues.
What has kept her in Mogadishu, what keeps her going through the long days, what keeps her travelling into work during the pandemic is empathy.
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