Facebook is expanding its Coronavirus Information Centre to 24 more countries in Africa in a bid to deliver news from trusted health authorities.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information Centre is featured at the top of News Feed and provides a central place for people to keep informed about the Coronavirus. It includes real-time updates from national official sources, regional and global organizations such as the Africa Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, as well as helpful resources - articles, videos and posts - and tips about social distancing and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Facebook users can opt-in to the Centre to get notifications and see updates in their News Feed from official government, regional or global health authorities.
Facebook’s Director of Public Policy, Africa, Kojo Boakye, says: “Facebook is supporting the public health community’s work across the world to keep all communities informed during the coronavirus pandemic. We are happy to provide nearly every country in Sub-Saharan Africa with its own Information Centre so people across the continent have a central place to find authoritative information around COVID-19.”
The new countries where Facebook is launching the Coronavirus Information Centre are: Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Coronavirus Information Centre is already in place in the following sub-Sahara African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Togo.