The Government of Ethiopia has increased that its daily COVID-19 (coronavirus) testing capacity has increased to 3,985 after 12 testing laboratories began operation this week.
The addition of 12 testing laboratories this week has now increased the total number of COVID-19 testing labs in Ethiopia to 20, according to Dr. Liya Tadesse, Minister of Health of Ethiopia. The Minister indicated that this will allow the country to conduct coronavirus tests for 3,985 suspected individuals daily.
Out of the total laboratories nine including one private are found in the capital Addis Ababa, while the remaining are in different parts of the country. She also stated that soon five more testing laboratories for coronavirus will go operational. Since Ethiopia reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case in mid March, 2020, the country has conducted a total of over 6,500 laboratory tests for the people suspected of infected by the virus.
Including three new cases found over the past 24 hours, so far a total of 114 COVID-19 positive cases are reported in Ethiopia of which three have died and 15 recovered. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been advising countries to increase their COVID-19 laboratory testing capacity to contain the global pandemic, which claims over 170,000 lives in just a few months after originating from Wuhan city of China.