Community-based surveillance contribution to the response of COVID-19 in Niger.

Introduction: the COVID-19 pandemic has spread across all countries in Africa, with much of the model forecasting disastrous results owing to weak health services and political uncertainty. In Niger, an adaptive solution to the COVID-19 pandemic has been implemented by community-based surveillance system (CBS) to complement passive case-finding in health systems.

Methods: the CBS program was designed to use the current CBS polio network spanning 37 health districts in six regions. Between April and November 2020, 150 community health workers (CHWs) were equipped to improve integrated disease surveillance and response (IDSR) preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We retrospectively analysed the health data of the National Health Information System to describe the effect of CBS in COVID-19 surveillance.

Results: overall, trained CHWs were able to raise awareness among 2,681,642 persons regarding COVID-19 preventions and controls strategies. They reported 143 (84%) valid alerts resulting in two positive COVID-19 cases missing in the community. In addition, CHWs added to the contact tracing of 37 individuals and informed about the deaths in the community.

Conclusion: community-based surveillance improved COVID-19 response in Niger. Logistic assistance and ongoing training are the foundations for increasing and sustaining the sensitivity of CBS systems in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to deter hotspots across countries.