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Africa CDC aims to conduct 7 million COVID-19 tests by November

  • CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong says member states will receive 3.2 million test kits in the coming months.
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The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says it aims to conduct seven million COVID-19 tests between now and November. To achieve this target, CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong says member states will receive 3.2 million test kits in the coming months.
Africa has 215 600 active coronavirus cases and more than 33 000 people have died from the disease:

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says there is increasing evidence that Africans living with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension and diabetes are more likely to suffer severe cases of COVID-19 and die.

In South Africa, which accounts for nearly half of all cases and deaths on the continent, 61% of the COVID-19 patients in hospitals had hypertension and 52% had diabetes, and 45% of people aged 60–69 who died from COVID-19 also had hypertension.

In Kenya, around half of COVID-19 deaths occurred in people with NCDs, while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, such patients accounted for 85% of all COVID-19 deaths.

According to a WHO preliminary analysis of 14 countries in the African region, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma are the co-morbidities most associated with COVID-19 patients.

These chronic conditions require continuous treatment, but as governments address the ongoing pandemic, health services for NCDs have been severely disrupted.

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