Global shortage of reagent hampers virus testing, not lack of money

Although a R250 million Solidarity Fund grant would assist the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) procure reagents, a global scramble has resulted in a shortage of the chemical ingredient required in testing for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Solidarity Fund said the money would enable the NHLS to conduct a further 1.1 million tests – improving on the current two-week-long turnaround time.

But an NHLS official who yesterday spoke to The Citizen on condition of anonymity, cautioned that “meeting the set target will depend on reagent manufacturers, most of whom are based overseas”.

“We are competing with other countries in obtaining the reagents from manufacturers abroad.”

According to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s publication, Chemistry World, the UK also recently blamed a delay on ramping up Covid-19 testing on the shortage of reagents.

According to the daily World Health Organisation Covid-19 dashboard, the UK yesterday reported 290,147 confirmed cases, while SA accounted for 55,421.

As the number of Covid-19 infections increased in South Africa, the Solidarity Fund said it was supporting the provision of more than one million Covid-19 tests “to help government’s efforts to ramp up testing, tracing and quarantining to slow the spread of the virus”.

The fund’s healthcare head, Dr Jonathan Broomberg, said: “The Solidarity Fund is committed to helping make efficient, accessible testing and analysis available to as many South Africans as possible, to ensure the optimal containment of Covid-19.”

The fund also supported the SA Medical Research Council and a consortium of universities with a grant of R88 million to scale up testing in their virology laboratories, expected “to add capacity for a up to 12,000 tests per day, once fully operational”.

Dis-Chem and Global Health Laboratory are spearheading initiatives supported by the fund with an initial grant of R20 million to roll out free testing at walk-in facilities for people unable to afford the test.

– brians@citizen.co.za

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