Coronavirus control in Ivory Coast: screening at the heart of the strategy

The Pasteur Institute of Côte d'Ivoire. RFI / Pierre Pinto

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The Ivory Coast registers, this Monday, May 11, 30 new cases of Covid-19 out of 499 samples taken and no new deaths. Samples sent to the Pasteur Institute in Côte d'Ivoire, which has the famous real-time PCR machines, which can detect SARS-CoV-2, the famous coronavirus.

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With our correspondent in Abidjan, Pierre Pinto

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic , the Pasteur Institute in Côte d'Ivoire has analyzed 13,000 samples. Today, the daily average fluctuates between 300 and 500. A few weeks ago the Minister of Health announced that Côte d'Ivoire would be able to test around 1,000 to 1,500 people per day. But things are a little more complicated than expected, says the director of the Pasteur Institute, Mireille Dosso.

“  We ordered to do more than 200,000 tests, but the companies are sometimes not able to deliver. And when the lot is available, you have to have a plane. So, between the time we place the order and the time we receive the tests, it's several weeks. And these tests happen every week, a little at a time.  "

Response plan of 96 billion CFA francs

The tests used are RT-PCR tests, which analyze nasopharyngeal samples, that is to say samples taken from the nose. Côte d'Ivoire for the moment does not opt ​​for serological and blood tests. "  The rapid serological tests that are currently on the market do not allow us to tell, at the time of collection, whether you are sick or not. Currently, the policy is to screen the sick, isolate them, treat them,  ”adds Mireille Dosso.

Until three weeks ago, the Pasteur Institute was fighting Covid-19 thanks to the supply of inputs or reagents by German, South African, Hong Kong and Ali Baba foundations. But since March, Côte d'Ivoire has adopted a health response plan with a budget of 96 billion CFA francs. The French Development Agency contributes 23 billion, or a quarter in particular to equip several provincial laboratories to increase the country's diagnostic capacity.

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  • Ivory Coast
  • Coronavirus
  • Health and Medicine

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