Africa has 90 million test kits for Covid-19

ADDIS ABABA: African countries have secured 90 million test kits for Covid-19 for the next six months, says the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

It urged states and donors to boost testing capabilities on the continent as quickly as possible.

An initiative, the Partnership to Accelerate Testing in Africa (Pact), aims to increase testing across the continent. So far, 3.4 million tests have been conducted in Africa, about 1 700 tests per million people, compared with 37 000 tests per million in Italy and 30 000 per million in Britain.

Even with the supplies from Pact and other sources, there is a supply gap of about 25 million tests needed to match the testing rate of Europe, said the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.