Ethiopia to start manufacturing COVID-19 test kits with China’s help

· With the spike in Covid-19 cases, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health has announced that the country plans to manufacture its own test kits with China’s support.

· Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has initiated the consultations with the Chinese government and that the manufacturing of test kits are expected to begin in September

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health has announced that the country plans to manufacture its own test kits with China’s support

The announcement came as the nation passed the mark of one million tests, the third-highest in the continent after South Africa and Morocco.

Deputy State Health Minister, Dr Dereje Duguma who made the announcement said that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has initiated the consultations with the Chinese government and that the manufacturing of test kits are expected to begin in September. The Local Manufacturing of the test kits , he added will enable Ethiopia to stop importing test kits and also boost its national Covid-19 testing capacity.

Ethiopia currently has 52 coronavirus testing centers, with more than 20,000 test samples analysed per day. Ethiopia had tested more than 1,019,000 people across the nation. According to coronavirus case tracker Worldometer, as on September 8, Ethiopia had confirmed 58,672 cases of the virus including 21,307 recoveries and 918 deaths. It had 36,447 active cases, with 326 of them in intensive care units.