Ethiopia for the first time will have its own reliable supply of COVID-19 testing kits after a month in a bid to enhance national testing capacity. Dr. Dereje Dgumma, State Minister of Health, said preparations are underway to develop a test kit in partnership with Chinese government. The local production will entirely evade the importation of testing kits from abroad, Ministry of Health announced.

He added that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been communicating on the issue with the Chinese government that provides support for the production of testing kit in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has been one of the hardest hit African countries by COVID-19, with virtually 57, 466 confirmed cases.

The country struggled in the early months of the pandemic to get enough test kits from several countries including China.

On the other hand, Ethiopia has been producing COVID-19 personal protection equipment and began to export for other countries, he noted.

Several companies in Hawassa Industrial Park are the leading ones in producing personal protection equipment in Ethiopia, he said.

Currently, there are 52 coronavirus testing centers in the country and more than 20,000 sample tests have been analyzed daily in these centers, it was learned.

Source: ENA