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The African Union Commission has published a new ‘Guidance on the use of rapid antigen tests for the COVID-19 response’ to rapidly scale up antigen testing on the continent.
The guide was published through the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) and its partners.
Together with the Quality Assurance Framework for Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Tests for Covid-19 Diagnosis and the SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Diagnostic Antigen Test Training Materials, Specialists expect May the document help rapidly expand testing capacity in Africa.
With an increase in Covid-19 cases, the commission urged member states to focus on the deployment of antigen testing to increase national Covid-19 testing capacity and better handle the pandemic to achieve positivity rates of tests below 5%.
Dr John Nkengasong, CDC Africa Director, said: “We have made significant progress in Africa in terms of testing, but we must recognize that we have not gotten there yet.
“Antigen testing is a game changer that member states must embrace to boost the ability of countries to scale up and rapidly scale up testing with faster turnaround time to get test results.”
Antigen tests are affordable, easy to use, and provide results in 15 minutes at the point of care.
In September, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the use of rapid antigen diagnostic tests, as countries face challenges in scaling up testing using nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs).
The new strategy is part of the Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing (PACT), which the African Union Commission implemented in June to boost testing, tracking and treatment capacity for the Covid-19 response in Africa.
PACT has been working to supply 11 million rapid antigen tests in Africa.
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