South Africa is the first country in Africa to roll out Corona virus screening and testing. The goal is to find out to what degree the virus has affected the people in the less affluent areas of South Africa. Up until now the disease has largely affected the middle to upper income areas as people who had travelled abroad returned and brought it with them.
In South Africa, the fear is that the virus could run riot in area where people live in crowded shanty towns, crammed into tight living areas where there is little hope of social distancing. Many don’t have running water so hand washing is also not easy. To add insult to injury, these areas contain some of the highest rates of HIV and TB infections in the world.
Now health care workers with loudhailers drive in specially equipped vans through some of these areas, calling to the people to come and be tested. The government has 67 of these vans deployed across the country. Together with the 10,000 people involved in this exercise, the plan is to increase testing to 30,000 tests per day.