9 June 2020, Geneva, Switzerland - A recent G20 communique reflected a growing shared concern about the impact of COVID-19 on health networks in the countries with limited response capacities. The communique stated that the leaders were “gravely concerned with the serious risks posed to all countries, particularly developing and least developed countries, and notably in Africa and small-island-states”, and reinforced their commitment to “strengthen capacity building and technical assistance, especially to at-risk communities”. 

According to Africanews, as of 7 April 2020, there were over 10,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 52 countries across the continent, and 487 deaths. The data from John Hopkins University and Africa Center for Disease Control from the same date demonstrated that the whole of Africa had a rising number of cases with only two countries still not affected by the pandemic.

The previous experience of responding to global epidemics and pandemics, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, H1N1 pandemic, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and Ebola, has highlighted the need to reinforce national public health capabilities and infrastructures, including disease-surveillance systems and laboratory networks, as well as human capacity, such as training in surveillance, epidemic response, and diagnostic testing. While the World Health Organization (WHO) is currently supporting countries to improve their diagnostic capacities, those still remain limited by the shortage of personnel trained to run the tests, and the inadequate supply of testing kits.

These critical shortages and resulting risks are being brought to the public attention by African leaders. Thus, President Hage Geingob of Namibia has reasonably noted that while at that moment, the country had only 11 confirmed coronavirus infections, the actual number might have been largely underestimated as healthcare workers “don’t have the means to test”. Sadly, Namibia is not the only country faced with this challenge.

While some countries are better equipped than others, most of the currently available testing facilities are located in urban areas with semi-urban and rural areas left with no means to test at all in the majority of cases. Wherever there is a shortage of diagnostic capacity for rapid testing for the virus, tests need to be done abroad, which critically increases the delay from identification of suspected cases to their confirmation and isolation, affecting possible disease transmission.

The worldwide gravity of this pandemic has pushed many companies and networks of individuals to take actions aimed at mitigating the risks for the most vulnerable. Just a few examples include Mike Bloomberg who pledged $40 million to fight coronavirus in Africa; Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who pledged $1 billion to the global fight against coronavirus; and the Gates Foundation and other charities who pledged $125 million to find the coronavirus antidote.

With these and other generous and commendable financial contributions, there is need to complement them with carefully crafted, context-specific solutions that would ensure the most efficient use of limited funds. And this is where capacity-building and technological experts step in.