Ethiopia coronavirus: Cases reach 74; ventilator, regional testing gets boost

Ethiopia’s COVID-19 file as of April 13 has 74 cases with three deaths and 14 recoveries.

The country is seeking to boost its ventilator reserves according to Health Minister Lia Tadesse. She disclosed to local media outlets that procurement of 400 ventilators was ongoing. She said Ethiopia had 435 ventilators at last count, many of which dysfunctional.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, another 122 ventilators were imported. Weeks back a private hospital held training for medics on how to use the life-saving respiratory devices which are currently a hot cake globally given their central role in saving patients with acute conditions of coronavirus.

Minister Lia is also quoted as stressing that healthcare professionals caring for COVID-19 patients will be provided with life insurances.

PM Abiy also announced via Twitter that local production of face masks was ongoing at an industrial park. According to him, companies in Hawasa Industrial Park were currently producing 10,000 face masks per day with production expected to be scaled up to 50,0000 per day.

Meanwhile, regional testing of the virus got a further boost after a laboratory went operational at the Haramaya University near Harar city, over the weekend. The lab’s coordinator Dr. Nega Assefa said if all inputs are available smoothly, the lab has the capacity to test 384 samples every 2 hours.

Tigray region’s Mekelle University became the first outside of Addis Ababa to have a testing laboratory weeks back. Late last week, Bahir Dar, capital of Amhara region, started testing for COVID-19.

The test started at the region’s Public Health Institute and had a capacity to conduct 100 tests daily. The region said at the time that it was working to expand similar works to 3 cities: Gonder, Dessie and Debre Birhan.