AfricaPress-Tanzania: Testing plays a major role in the response to the coronavirus, as it helps us understand how far the disease has spread.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which co-ordinates pandemic responses across the continent, says there is a large gap in testing rates between nations.
So which countries are succeeding in testing, and which are lagging behind?
Who is testing most and least?
Some of Africa’s smaller nations have achieved significantly better rates of testing than their larger neighbours.
Mauritius and Djibouti, for example, have both achieved high rates of testing per capita.
Ghana has also been praised for its level of testing, which its government says will help contain the spread of the virus once the lockdown is lifted.
South Africa has also pursued a relatively aggressive testing strategy, and has so far managed over 200,000 tests.
But this is way behind the numbers in countries like South Korea, Italy and Germany.
There are concerns that Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, is not testing nearly enough – although the government insists it’s focusing on “clusters” of positive cases.
