Frankfurt
am Main – Uganda and Rwanda have taken delivery of two mobile diagnostic labs
to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, the first in a network of German-funded
units for East Africa, public investment bank KfW said on Thursday.
While the project to procure the
labs and train staff has been under way since 2018, “they’re arriving at
exactly the right moment to help with fighting” the virus, KfW board
member Joachim Nagel said in a statement.
More of the mobile units “for speedy and modern diagnosis of infectious disease” will arrive
in the six countries of the East African Community (EAC) region in the coming
days, KfW said, for a total of nine in the first phase.
Under contract from the
Development Ministry in Berlin, KfW has pumped 27 million euros into the
project.
Lab staff from EAC countries
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda have undergone
training at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for tropical medicine in Hamburg and
in Tanzanian city Arusha.
Across Africa, only 25 461 people
had tested positive for the novel coronavirus by 19:00 (GMT) on Wednesday,
according to an AFP tally from official sources.
‘Hunger, unrest’ could result
But the pandemic is still in its
early stages on the continent, with fears the virus could spread quickly
through densely populated cities and refugee camps.
German Development Minister Gerd
Mueller urged Berlin to invest a further three billion euros in battling the
pandemic in poorer countries, on top of just over one billion already
earmarked.
Wealthy nations must help prevent “first hospitals and then entire states collapsing”, Mueller told the
Funke newspaper group.
“Hunger, unrest and, in the
end, uncontrollable refugee movements” could result otherwise, he warned.
Germany has begun easing curbs on
public life after ministers said the contagion had been brought under control.
Rapid and widespread testing of
the population for cases has been at the centre of Berlin’s containment
strategy.
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