Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Strive Masiyiwa has urged stricter testing and tracing of people for COVID-19 in African countries.
Writing on his popular Facebook blog, Masiyiwa called on African countries to prioritize strict testing and tracing of their citizens as a more effective and efficient way of combating the disease, given that in most African countries the infection numbers are still relatively low.
Masiyiwa writes:
“Test, test, trace, trace, trace!
“Given the relatively low number of infections, in addition to critically important #social distancing and #handwashing, etc, that you already know about by now, our energy and resources should be directed primarily at two key areas to stop the spread:
#Testing:
We are not doing enough #Testing. We have to decentralize the testing process and make #Testing easy, accessible, and unintimidating.
It is far much cheaper to #Test, than to #LockDown!
Then we must redouble:
#Tracing!
As you test, you focus on contact, very swift contact #Tracing.
During the Ebola crisis, countries like the DRC developed an amazing capability to #Trace and isolate those who had been in contact with anyone who tested positive and/or showed symptoms.
If you still have only 10 people who have tested positive, then focus on #Tracing, until you have everyone they #Contacted under strict isolation (but not in jail!)
Let’s ramp up #Testing and Contact #Tracing.”
Masiyiwa recently called on African governments to mobilize and take the lead in incentivizing healthcare workers in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.
