South Africa says it has a backlog of nearly 100,000 unprocessed tests for the coronavirus, a striking example of the painful shortage of testing kits and reagents across Africa as cases steadily rise.
South Africa has conducted more tests for the virus than any other country in Africa — more than 655,000 — and has the most confirmed cases with 27,403.
The widespread shortages, especially in testing materials, have jolted African authorities into facing uncomfortable truths: Richer countries are elbowing them out in the race to obtain crucial supplies, and the continent relies almost entirely on imports for drugs and other medical items. “Dozens of countries have imposed export controls on medical supplies and equipment, preventing them from being distributed equitably, based on need,” scores of South African and other health and activist groups said in an open letter to Group of 20 leaders last month.
Across Africa slightly under 2 million tests for the virus have been conducted, Nkengasong said, far below the target of testing 13 million people — or 1% of the continent’s population of 1.3 billion. As of mid-May, Chad had carried out 105 tests per million people and Mali had tested just 173 per million, compared to some 38,000 tests per million in the United States, the International Rescue Committee said last week.
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