AFRICA CDC REJECTS TANZANIA ASSERTION THAT CORONAVIRUS TESTS ARE FAULTY

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Thursday rejected an assertion by Tanzania’s president that his nation’s coronavirus tests are faulty and are giving too many false positives.

FILE PHOTO: John Nkengasong, Africa's Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

The Director of Africa CDC said that the testing facilities used by Tanzania are working well and are credible. 

“The tests that Tanzania is using we know they are working very well,” Dr. John Nkengasong told journalists on a conference call.

The Africa CDC, along with the Jack Ma Foundation, a charity run by a Chinese billionaire, supplied the tests, Nkengasong said.

Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, has donated thousands of tests kits, masks and protective gear to African nations and the equipment is being used across the continent. No other countries have made public complaints about the tests.

“We are very instrumental in training, providing training to nearly all countries and providing them with test kits. We’ve also in the last couple of weeks and months distributed tests from the Jack Ma Foundation that have been validated and proven to be very, very reliable,” Nkengasong said.

Director of the National Health
Referal Laboratory, Dr. Nyambura Moremi

Last week the President of Tanzania, John Magufuli questioned authenticity of COVID-19 testing facilities in Dar es Salaam following faulty results including positive results from Pawpaw, Goat and Sheep samples. 

The President said there could be a serious credibility problem with the issue of coronavirus testing in the country.

Magufuli said he had instructed Tanzanian security forces in collaboration with newly appointed Permanent Secretary of Health to check the quality of the kits citing that not all aids are of good-will.

"In checking the authenticity of the kits we had randomly obtained several non-human samples, including from a pawpaw, a goat and a sheep, but had assigned them human names, sex and ages." Said Magufuli.

The following day, the Minister of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elders and Children, Ummy Mwalimu, directed Dr. Nyambura Moremi who is the Director of National Health Referral Laboratory and the Head of Quality Control at the facility, Jacob Lusekelo to step aside pending further investigations.

She further formed a committee of nine members who will spearhead investigations on the purchase, conduct and operation of the national laboratory in the handling of the Covid-19 samples.

The government have not provided update on the COVID-19 new cases for more than a week contrary to WHO requirement that direct for daily updates.

WHO Africa head, Matshidiso Moeti 

Almost all other African nations release daily reports on the latest tallies on infections, fatalities and recoveries. Tanzania’s lag has prompted criticism from the country’s opposition that the government is being secretive.

Asked about Tanzania’s questioning of the tests, WHO Africa head Matshidiso Moeti said on a teleconference with the media: “We are convinced that the tests that have been provided ... both through procurement through WHO and those that came through Jack Ma donations, were not contaminated with the virus."

Africa’s testing capacity has expanded sharply but it has still carried out only around 685 tests per million people, according to figures from the Africa CDC. 

By comparison, Europe has carried out nearly 17 million tests, or just under 23,000 per million. - Africa