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ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) – The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) has urged the African continent to increase testing capacity for COVID-19 to effectively contain the spread of the virus. across the continent.
The urgent call was made by John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, as he stressed that if Africa wants to effectively mitigate the spread of the virus in the near future, the continent needs to increase its testing capabilities.
“Testing is the cornerstone of the response to this pandemic, without testing we will fight blind. But the testing strategy must change as countries unlock their economies,” Nkengasong said in an Africa CDC statement issued. Saturday night.
“We need to scale up testing and we need to improve test turnaround time so that we can quickly identify, isolate and treat positive cases,” added the CDC Africa director.
As of Sunday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa rose to 1,346,658 and the death toll rose to 32,502. The number of people who have recovered from their COVID-19 infections also reached 1,083,438 so far, according to the CDC Africa, a specialized health care agency of the African Union Commission (AU).
Amid the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, the continental disease control and prevention agency had recently praised progress in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in Africa.
Speaking exclusively to Xinhua recently, Nkengasong said that the African continent “is very active in the vaccine space because we know that it is one of the tools and instruments that will really be decisive in terms of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. “. “
“In terms of vaccine development, Africa is not just dormant. We are making very good progress. We are now developing a continental strategy for vaccines, a framework that will guide vaccine development and access efforts in Africa,” Nkengasong told Xinhua.
However, noting that the number of COVID-19 tests in Africa is “encouraging” with more than 11 million people being tested so far, the director stressed that African countries have yet to step up their testing capabilities. test.
Nkengasong also emphasized that, as a continent, Africa needs to conduct around 15 million tests per month to stay ahead of the pandemic. Final product
