Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Good morning, good afternoon, bonjour, bom dia to everyone and thank you all for joining this press conference on how the widespread use of high-quality rapid testing in Africa can revolutionize the continent’s response to COVID-19.
I’m pleased to be joined in this conversation by Professor Abdoulaye Toure, the Director-General of the National Institute of Public Health in Guinea, bienvenue le professeur, and Dr Susan Ndidde Nabadda, who is the head of the National Health Laboratory in Uganda. Welcome, Dr Susan.
African countries are gearing up to introduce antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests on a large scale and this will be a game changer, we think in the fight against COVID-19. These high-quality rapid tests will help meet the huge unmet need for testing in Africa.
While there are testing challenges in many parts of the world, we’ve seen that Africa countries have faced a significant gap throughout the pandemic. For example, Senegal has significantly boosted its testing capacity, but it is still testing 14 times less than the Netherlands. Nigeria is testing 11 times less than Brazil.
In Africa, countries are mostly conducting PCR tests which require laboratories (even if they are mobile labs), as well as reagents and experts, leading to a concentration of testing capacity mainly in the capitals or in large cities.
The new rapid tests are easy to use, cheaper than polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests, and provide the results in under 30 minutes, enabling countries to decentralize testing and speed-up the turnaround time for results to quickly reach, identify, test and isolate contacts of positive cases.
Currently, most African countries focus the use of their stocks that they have of testing kits on testing travellers, patients or contacts and we estimate that a significant number of cases are still being missed. With rapid testing, authorities can stay a step ahead of COVID-19 by scaling-up active case finding in challenging environments, like crowded urban neighbourhoods and communities out in the countryside. Rapid community surveys can be done in areas where the virus might be circulating to confirm and quickly intensify surveillance and other public health measures.
Globally, 120 million of these tests are being made available to low- and middle-income countries through the WHO ACT Accelerator coalition. In Africa, the Global Fund, UNITAID, FIND and the Africa CDC have linked up to distribute the tests and we greatly appreciate the partnership of these agencies.
WHO is working hand-in-hand with countries by sending out key policy and operational guidance documents, developing a training package, and deploying experts in the field to support the roll out of these tests.
Turning then to the COVID-19 situation: there are now more than 1.67 million cases on the African continent and 40,400 people who have sadly lost their lives. In the WHO African Region, which is mainly sub-Saharan Africa as well as Algeria, we have had 1.27 million cases and 28,600 people have died.
The Region has experienced a downward trend, from a daily average of more than 15,000 cases in July, to less than 4000 in the past month. But in the past couple of weeks, this decline has slowed down to a plateau. As countries ease restrictions on movement, some increases in cases are expected, but preventing an exponential rise is absolutely critical. We can do this using public health capacities to find, test, isolate and care for cases, and to trace and isolate their contacts.
We all have a role to play in wearing masks, keeping a distance and frequently washing our hands, to protect ourselves and those around us from infection. Together we can keep cases low and protect our communities.
Finally, while much of our energy is focused on COVID-19, this Saturday we will commemorate World Polio Day. This year Africa was certified free of wild poliovirus and I once again congratulate and thank the governments, the communities and partners for your tireless commitment towards achieving this goal.
The fight is not over, and vaccination campaigns remain critical to end all forms of polio. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 35 million children have been vaccinated across 13 African countries since campaigns resumed in July. This is really remarkable and it shows that health service delivery in other areas can be sustained, by working together with determination, innovation and solidarity despite the context of this pandemic.
I look forward to our discussion today and I thank you once again for joining us.