AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Tanzania Government has expressed gratitude to the Federal Government of Germany for its support in the fight against Covid-19 by financing testing kits.
The Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, conveyed the gratitude as Tanzania institutes measures to tame local transmission of the deadly virus, having, to a great extent, managed to tame imported cases.
The German government, through its Frankfurt-based development bank KfW, is financing 5,400 Covid-19 test kits for the six East African Community (EAC) member countries – Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
“Thank you Germany/@ KfW_int for your support in strengthening Covid-19 laboratory testing capacity in East African Community partner states. Tanzania tunasema Asante sana Folded hands,” remarked Ms Mwalimu through her Tweeter account, finalizing by saying “thank you so much.”
Through joint cooperation with the EAC Secretariat, Germany is extending the support, and already, 500 kits have arrived in the country.
Apart from financing the diagnostic kits to the EAC, Germany, through KfW, financed an intensive training programme for laboratory experts to build capacity in the region to detect Covid-19.
The Senior Public Relations Officer at the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department of the EAC Secretariat, Mr Simon Owaka, unveiled that the training was conducted under the EAC Network of Public Health Reference Laboratories for Communicable Diseases (Mobile Labs Programme) in collaboration with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM).
The Acting Head of Health Department at the EAC Secretariat, Dr Michael Katende, said recently that the Secretariat had provided the training, with KfW support, in an effort to enable all EAC partner states detect and diagnose the novel corona virus promptly and thereby avoid its spread.
He further emphasized that this initiative was in response to World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for the new coronavirus.
The objectives of the plan are to limit human-to-human transmission of the virus, particularly in countries that would be most vulnerable if they faced an outbreak, to identify, isolate and care for patients early, communicate critical risk and event information, minimize social and economic impact, reduce the spread of the virus from animal sources and address still existing unknowns.
Dr Katende further noted that it was of high priority and importance to ensure that all EAC partner states maintain high levels of preparedness and surveillance.
Having got the training and diagnostic kits, Minister Mwalimu said that Tanzania was expected to issue a trend and projections outlook of the spread of Coronavirus in the country.
The Secretariat has also deployed mobile laboratories to all EAC partner states, each receiving a four-wheel drive vehicle fitted with laboratory and ICT equipment, as well as all the necessary consumables for a fully functional laboratory with the capacity to conduct tests for Ebola and the Coronavirus in addition to other pathogens.
It has also put in place a Regional Coordination Committee (RCC) with Risk Communication and community engagement; Policy and Guidelines; Finance and Logistics; and Data and Statistics Sub-committees to oversee the regional Covid–19 response.
The RCC has already set in motion a number of activities to secure the EAC Organs and Institutions, and support the partner states in battling the virus.
