The key lessons for epidemic response are to act fast but act locally. That is what African countries should be doing.

Africa's health systems are already overstretched. Covid-19 demands an emergency response at scale and that begins with governments.

African hospitals need testing kits, basic materials for hygiene, personal protective equipment for the professional health workers, and equipment for assisted breathing.

African countries cannot close its fresh produce markets or people will starve. But market goers can readily work out how to reduce the risks of transmission, through measures such as better hygiene, crowd control, and physical barriers such as polythene sheeting at point of sale.

Another proposal is that each household should designate a single person to buy food, and the market authorities provide that person with an identifier such as a coloured bangle. The designated shopper would then be isolated from other household members on returning home. Some markets could be temporarily relocated to safer sites.