Harare (New Ziana) – President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday rallied Africa to scale-up its Covid-19 testing capacity in order to improve chances of beating the deadly virus.
He was speaking during a virtual African Union (AU) Bureau meeting which was chaired by the AU chairperson President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC) director Dr John Nkengasong also participated.
In his remarks, President Mnangagwa expressed concern over the increasing cases of Covid-19 in Africa.
According to the AU, Africa has recorded over 150 000 cases of the deadly virus from about 2.4 million tests conducted.
“Mr chairman, I wish to express concern over the increased rate of infections on the continent, in that connection I would like to emphasise the need to expedite the process of accessing the diagnostic kits required to meet the target of 10 million tests in the following few months,” President Mnangagwa said.
“As a result there is urgent need to secure critical medical supplies and equipment including Personal Protective Equipment, sanitisers and ventilators.”
The ACDC and the Mastercard Foundation recently partnered for a US$40 million continent-wide Covid-19 response program which seeks to accelerate Coronavirus testing.
The funds will be used to purchase test kits, to train and deploy community healthcare workers and surveillance rapid responders to support contact tracing as well as strengthen Africa CDC’s capacity to oversee a continental response to the pandemic.
Under the initiative, the ACDC will work with AU member states and several partners to support pooled procurement, storage and distribution of diagnostics and other medical supplies; testing of at least 10 million individuals, and the deployment of one million community workers and community healthcare workers.
The initiative will also support the deployment of technology platforms that will enhance testing, epidemiological modelling, and critical health forecasting, to support re-opening and recovery of economies.
President Mnangagwa commended the new initiative.
“Countries like Zimbabwe and Sudan, who are on sanctions would not have been able to secure or access these material anywhere but because of what you have designed with your bureau, we as Zimbabwe feel that we are being taken on board, I am grateful for the manner which you are approaching this task so that we all benefit,” he said.
On its part, he said, Zimbabwe had done everything within its capacity to fight the disease.
“Your excellencies, here in Zimbabwe since the confirmation of Covid-19, we have implemented a raft of measures, in spite of limited financial capacity, to respond to the pandemic. The swift measures introduced by the government from the onset of the first reported case in the country in March have assisted in minimising local transmissions.”
He said cumulative number of tests done in the country was in excess of 353 000.
“The increase in Covid-19 cases witnessed in the past weeks have been attributed to Zimbabwean citizens returning home from abroad, in that regard we have been working around the clock to adequately equip quarantine centres and health facilities at our borders and in all provinces up to district level,” he said.
New Ziana
