Seven African nations have committed to taking part in a continent-wide COVID-19 antibodies case study.

The study, set to start this week, is one of latest initiatives from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (Africa CDC) to combat the spread of the virus.

Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria and Morocco are the first set of countries to commit to the study, which aims to ‘determine the continent’s real confirmed case data and comprehend the apparent relatively low caseload’, according to Africa News. The Kenya Medical Research Institute and Wellcome Trust Research programme reportedly found that one in 20 Kenyans aged between 15 and 64 carries COVID-19 antibodies, or 1.6 million Kenyans, indicating that far more people have been infected than officially recorded but without exhibiting symptoms and with much fewer deaths than expected.

In addition, a partnership between the Africa CDC and African Risk Capacity launched a pair of COVID-19 modelling and simulation tools earlier this month. The COVID-19 Potential Outcomes Scenarios will aid in predicting the potential impact of the pandemic for Africa CDC members, and the COVID-19 Spread Simulation Tool will simulate different scenarios for how the virus is likely to spread.

25 August 2020
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