COVID-19: Beyond lockdown: Africa needs to ramp up its testing, tracing and treatment efforts

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Lockdowns and physical distancing have proved crucial to slowing the spread of Covid-19 in the short term, but looking to the future these measures are unsustainable and have caused a lot of social and economic damage. As the race for the vaccine continues experts are now focused on improving testing, tracing and treatment efforts, especially in Africa, where life-threatening gaps exist.

But as the race for a vaccine continues, effective testing, tracing and treatment measures are critical.

Gray said that using innovative, digital tracing mechanisms was important. South Africa, for example, recently launched a Bluetooth-enabled mobile app called Covid Alert. Much of the testing in Africa focused on symptomatic carriers, said El-Sadr, though global data showed that roughly 40% of transmissions were from people who were asymptomatic. South Africa, for example, had relatively restrictive testing criteria initially requiring a person to have symptoms such as a dry cough or fever.

he Water Research Commission in partnership with the South African Local Government Association , is leading a water surveillance initiative called the Water Quality National Surveillance Programme.

 

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