Low And Middle Income Countries To Receive Rapid COVID-19 Tests

The World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said in Nairobi yesterday that all low and middle-income African countries are to receive rapid test kids from the World Health Organization.

“We are pleased and encouraged to be able to share information about the emergency use license that WHO has given to a couple of rapid tests. All of our low and middle-income countries, virtually the whole of Africa will have some of these tests made available,” said Dr. Moeti.

The WHO intends to help poor African countries combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic now that most of these countries are opening up economies, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Malawi will also receive the kits.

Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti added that the deployment of the antigen kits will boost the level of testing and make contact tracing easier as the pandemic continues to bite harder.

“They will help some of our countries to increase the testing rates to be on top or ahead of the situation so that we can contain the uptakes that we are expecting and anticipating, now that countries are forced to open up the movement of people and their economies,” said Dr. Moeti.

“But testing cannot work in isolation. Just the way the tests are rapid, it is important for contact tracing to be rapid so that you isolate them before they spread the virus further,” she added.

According to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, about 120 million kits will be available for low and middle-income countries and will be distributed by the Africa CDC and Unitaid at a subsidized rate of 500 shillings per unit for six months.

The WHO decided to roll out rapid test kits to low and middle-income countries because lack of enough testing of Covid-19 has been the greatest hindrance in the fight against COVID-19 especially in African countries with less testing equipment.

WHO On The 120 Million Rapid Test Kits

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on 28 September that it and leading partners agreed to a plan to roll out 120 million rapid-diagnostic tests for the coronavirus to help lower and middle-income countries make up ground in a testing gap with richer countries.

The program initially required $600 million and was to get started as early as the following month to provide better access to areas where it’s harder to reach with PCR tests that are used often in many wealthier nations.

The rapid tests look for antigens, or proteins found on the surface of the virus. They take between 15 and 30 minutes. . These tests come in individually wrapped kits that include a finger prick tool, a swab, solution, and a test plate.