The national Solidarity Fund has focused on granting funds for testing, in light of the rapid spread of Covid-19 infections as lockdown measures have eased in South Africa.
The fund has supported the National Health Laboratory Service with a grant of R250-million, which will assist in the procurement of agents to enable the testing of at least one-million more people.
The Solidarity Fund also supported the South African Medical Research Centre and a consortium of several universities with a grant of R88-million, which will be used to scale up testing in their virology laboratories. This is expected to add capacity for up to 12 000 additional tests to be conducted each day.
Additionally, the fund has supported pharmacy group Dischem and Global Health Innovations Laboratory with an initial grant of R20-million to roll out free testing at walk-in testing facilities for those who are not on medical aid and cannot afford to do a test.
This service is targeted at communities that are underserved and should add an additional 33 000 tests to total testing numbers.
The fund comments in a statement that widespread Covid-19 testing not only helps provide individuals with valuable information to assist them to better manage their own health, but also assists epidemiologists to better identify positive cases, track and trace potential contacts to further slow transmission of the virus.
In turn, this helps to protect the public health system, frontline healthcare workers and it assists the health authorities to identify potential hotspots to manage the impact of the pandemic.
The increased testing also provides valuable data to help determine whether containment measures are working.