Malawi has become the first African nation to have a Covid19 rapid tester which gives results within 15 minutes.
The device that has been developed by the world’s leading healthcare company Abbott is said to be a reliable and affordable tool in the detection of active coronavirus infections.
Over 200 testing sites and communities are expected to have the facility according to
Joseph Bitilinyu, Bango,
Head of National Laboratory Services in the Ministry of Health.
This is also coming at a time people had to wait for a week or more to access their results after getting tested for Covid19.
Speaking to MIJ Online, Bango said the new testers will have a big impact to Malawi.
He described it as a thousand step forward towards the fight against Covid19.
So far, slightly over 70 thousand tests have been conducted nationalwide with over 6 thousand confirmed cases.
Currently, there are about 50 active cases and 187 deaths have been reported since the first case in April.