WATCH: Africa’s first company to produce rapid Covid-19 test kits

South Africa will be the first country on the continent to locally develop rapid Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kits.

Last week, it was announced that the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) authorised biotechnology company, CapeBio, to manufacture the kits.

CapeBio CEO, Daniel Ndima says now for the first time, Africa has its own test kit that can compete with the imported kits that have been used since the beginning of the pandemic.

“It gives us a lot of hope as a country because it will create value chains and it will soon start to unfold. We can now localize production of this kind of technology,” he said.

Covid-19 testing is critical in managing a pandemic and particularly now with the fourth wave predicted within the next four months, Ndima said testing will be vital to identify hotspots and outbreaks.