African Countries Scramble to Ramp up Testing for COVID-19

Nations in the continent, which have had to import testing supplies and bid against richer countries, are trying to develop their own tests

Health worker dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) takes a nasopharyngeal swab sample from a resident during a COVID-19 testing drive at Olympic Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 26, 2020. Credit: Patrick Meinhardt Getty Images

On April 26 Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, put out a desperate call on Twitter for tests that detect pieces of viral genetic material in patient samples. At that time the West African country of 196 million had tested fewer than 12,000 people for the novel coronavirus. Germany, by contrast, was testing half a million people a week. Although Ihekweazu’s initial request was answered, with companies coming forward and offering stocks of testing materials, Nigeria is still struggling to keep up with the demand for tests.

Ihekweazu’s problem mirrors that of other health officials on the continent. Tests to diagnose viral infections are key to controlling the pandemic, but African countries do not make any locally and must import them. And though these nations have money to buy test kits and reagents, they have been routinely outbid by richer ones, including the U.S. and in the European Union. Through a recent African initiative, countries there secured 90 million test kits to be shipped over the next six months. Yet that number will likely not be enough to stem the tide of COVID-19 in a continent of 1.3 billion people.

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