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Africa Scaling Up Coronavirus Detection, Prevention

Simon Marks

   ADDIS ABABA - African countries are scaling up their ability to detect
   the coronavirus as fears mount that the continent's first confirmed
   case could soon be announced.

   With more than 64,000 cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed across
   the globe, officials in Africa are rushing to train health workers,
   enhance screening at airports and set up laboratories in all 54 African
   states to detect the virus.

   "As we speak today, more than 16 countries now have that capacity to
   test," John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease
   Control and Prevention, said Friday. "And by the 20th of this month, an
   additional 20 labs -- that is 16 plus 20 -- will have the capacity to
   test. So, we are scaling up very rapidly across the continent in terms
   of diagnostics. As we speak here now there is a training going on in
   Nairobi, Kenya, on enhanced surveillance at airports and ports of entry
   screening. Over 40 countries will be trained in two sets."

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