COVID-19 continues to be unpredictable but the general belief is that it will not disappear within a short period of time. Clustered infections in different villages and towns will occur. Sadly, the most at risk population will then be farmers who are the backbone of our economy. EPHA is among the stakeholders faced with a serious challenge as a lot is expected from it in terms of proactively supporting the health system.

Even though much remains to be understood about the mode of transmission of Covid-19 awareness creation of basic preventive measures needs to be undertaken at scale, based on the lessons learnt from the experience of different countries. Reaching hard to reach localities is crucial before it becomes impossible to curb the spread of the disease to rural areas in particular. Accordingly, Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA) should play a significant role in supporting the frontline health workers by designing feasible strategies to promote community participation in all efforts underway to save lives.

There are some members of EPHA participating in different committees established by the Federal Ministry of Health to provide individual expertise but it is the obligation of all of us, members, to propose different initiatives and support our association to stand in the front and contribute more vigorously to prevent the spread of this killer disease.

Finally, we should remind ourselves that EPHA’s role at Federal level is to participate in policy formulation and health system reform activities but should not be limited to functioning at central level only. For this reason, EPHA Chapters at regional level should be strengthened and encouraged to work in partnership with public sector and civil societies at all level in the implementation of health sector strategies, including the efforts to curb the dangers facing our country due to COVID-19 pandemic now.