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Coronavirus: Which African countries are ahead in the tests?
Tests play an important role in the response to the coronavirus, as they help us understand how far the disease has spread.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa, which coordinates responses to a pandemic across the continent, say there is a big gap in test rates between nations.
So which countries are testing successful and which are lagging?
Who is testing more and less?
Some of Africa’s smallest nations have achieved significantly better test rates than their larger neighbors.
Mauritius and Djibouti, for example, have achieved high rates of testing per capita.
Ghana has also been praised for its level of evidence, which its government says will help contain the spread of the virus once the blockade is lifted.
South Africa has also followed a relatively aggressive testing strategy, and has so far handled more than 200,000 tests. But this is far behind the numbers in countries like South Korea, Italy and Germany.
There is concern that Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, is not testing enough, although the government insists it is targeting “clusters” of positive cases.
Nigeria-based BBC correspondent Chi Chi Izundu says authorities are expanding the evidence.
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“The goal is to reach 5,000 a day, but they didn’t even reach 1,000.”
It is worth adding that there are some countries on the continent where test data is not available, such as Eritrea and Algeria.
Some are not testable, while others, for various reasons, will not provide data.
For example, President Magufuli of Tanzania has said that disclosing such data creates fear. Your country has only released information on and off, sometimes simply giving the number of people who have recovered from the virus.
What are the obstacles to further testing?
Obtaining the chemical reagents needed to process the tests can be difficult as African countries do not produce their own and need to compete for limited global supplies.
John Nkengasong of the Centers for Disease Control in Africa says that “the collapse of global cooperation and the failure of international solidarity have driven Africa out of the diagnostic market.”
He says African countries may have funds, but “70 countries that impose restrictions on exports of medical supplies” has made it difficult to buy the necessary goods.
There are also other barriers to increasing testing, including blocking measures to restrict movement, which can make it difficult for people to get to test sites.
However, Ngozi Erondu, an assistant professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says the biggest problem is equipment.
“You are not having enough kits and reagents,” she says.
The Nigerian Center for Disease Control currently has 18 test laboratories that can process tests that tell you if you have the disease. But he has filed an urgent request for essential test equipment.
Kenya has also admitted that it faces challenges in obtaining test kits, swabs, and reagents, and its overall number of tests has recently decreased as a result.
The head of one of Kenya’s regional governments recently said there were only 5,000 test kits in the country and that they expected 24,000 more.
There are also other social and political factors that could be barriers to further testing.
“In some communities there could be a stigma associated with having the coronavirus,” says Ngozi Erondu. “It is also the case that local leaders may reject the tests if they are ready for an election.”
The African Union and the Centers for Disease Control in Africa have launched an initiative, the Association to Accelerate Testing COVID-19 (PACT), which focuses on monitoring, testing and follow-up.
The initiative aims to implement around a million tests in four weeks across the continent.
Previous coronavirus outbreaks in Asia and Europe gave African states time to consider their responses, and the experience of managing epidemics like Ebola also helped them.
But acquiring test kits in a competitive global marketplace, taking tests where they need to be and setting up laboratories to process samples is not an easy task for countries with less economic influence and weaker health systems.
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