Zimbabwe is running out of Covid-19 test kits amid reports that only 10 percent of the monthly requirements is left in stock.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care weekly Covid-19 report, Zimbabwe needs 15 000 viral transport media and an equal number of PCR re-agents per month.
The report shows that there is a low supply of GeneXpert cartridges not enough to last for a month.
“Testing was decentralised to improve on the turnaround time but frequent shortages of testing kits and reagents have slowed down the progress made. The number of PCR tests done decreased with average tests for the week standing at 1 240 as compared to 1 946 from the previous week. We also reported a decrease in the positives this week (890) as compared from the previous week (2 280),” read the report.
However, the ministry said at the moment there is no back log across all testing labs in Zimbabwe as all people who underwent COVID-19 tests have received their results.
