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VODAN Africa Team in Kenya FAIRifies COVID-19 Data After The Deployment of FAIR Data Point

vodan-africa-team-in-kenya-fairifies-covid-19-data-after-the-deployment-of-fair-data-point

The FDP in Kenya is the 7th machine-actionable FDP under the VODAN Africa Initiative. Other existing FDPs are in Uganda (one), Nigeria (two), Ethiopia (two) and Tunisia (one). The initiative is in the process of cross-continental querying of connected data through these networks of FDPs in Africa and the FDP at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) in Netherlands.

On Tuesday September 22nd, 2020, the VODAN African team in Kenya led by Dr. Reginald Nalugala did a successful demonstration of their capability to make COVID-19 data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) in a webinar hosted by Charles Kahiro and Ivy Wachara of Ravel Works Africa.

According to the demonstration done by William Nandwa from Tangaza University, Kenya, the FAIR Data Point (FDP) has data on COVID-19 cases from Kenya Medical training Centre (KMTC), Pumwani Maternity Hospital and Zambezi Hospital. These datasets contain data number of confirmed cases, total number of recovered patients, and number of COVID-19 tests from the three health facilities.

In his presentation Dr. Nalugala told the participants about the efforts being made by the government of Kenya in managing the challenges posed by COVID-19. These includes mass testing, resource mobilization, community sensitization and other initiatives. As of 22nd September 2020, there has been 36,000 infections, 20,000 recoveries and 600 deaths which represent 1.67% COVID-19 mortality rate in Kenya

The FDP in Kenya is the 7th machine-actionable FDP under the VODAN Africa Initiative. Other existing FDPs are in Uganda (one), Nigeria (two), Ethiopia (two) and Tunisia (one). The initiative is in the process of cross-continental querying of connected data through these networks of FDPs in Africa and the FDP at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) in Netherlands.

The Virus Outbreak Data Network is a collaboration between Kampala International UniversityLeiden UniversityTilburg University and other universities, which include Addis Ababa University and Mekelle University in Ethiopia, Université de Sousse in Tunisia, Tangaza University in Kenya, Great Zimbabwe University in Zimbabwe and Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida UniversityOlabisi Onabanjo University and Data Science in Nigeria.