African countries to begin coronavirus antibody testing

Seven African countries will begin administering coronavirus antibody tests next week, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

The testing is part of an effort to understand how widespread the infection is on the continent.

"Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco are the first set of countries that committed to it," head of Africa CDC John Nkengasong said in a weekly briefing on Thursday.

He said the continent had conducted 9.4 million coronavirus tests so far, closing in on the 10 million target set in collaboration with member states.

Dr Nkengasong said Africa was making good progress for vaccine development.

He said a continental strategy was being developed to set up a consortium of clinical trials and then begin the procurement and financing of vaccines.

The continent has so far recorded 1,084,904 coronavirus cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.