South African doctors say lengthy delays for samples to be processed in laboratories are undermining the effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Partly because of a lack of equipment, tens of thousands of samples have been waiting for more than a week to be tested.
Doctors say older samples should simply be thrown away because the backlog renders the results worthless.
By the time a positive case is confirmed, that person could have passed the virus on to dozens of others, and would probably no longer be infectious themselves.
New tests should be focused on hospitals, the elderly, and those most at risk.
Although South Africa has had some success in containing the pandemic, this setback to the testing comes at a time when the infection rate is rising sharply and there are warnings that Cape Town’s hospitals are close to being overwhelmed.
Source: BBC
About The Author
