With assistance from WHO, Sudan has sped up its testing and response to the COVID-19 outbreak by equipping a new laboratory in Nyala. A team from the Federal Ministry of Health from Khartoum was recently sent to inspect the laboratory. In parallel, staff from Nyala were trained to operate the facility.
The laboratory has helped eliminate testing delays and reduced costs as previously all tests were sent and carried out in Khartoum. The laboratory serves all of Darfur’s five states, covering a population of approximately 13 million people, including refugees and internally displaced persons.
The government of Sudan has further planned to develop the laboratory’s capacity and use it as a disease control and prevention centre as well as for research.
The newly equipped laboratory has allowed test results to come back the same day which consequently saves time and improves contact tracing boosting Sudan’s overall response to COVID-19.
Plans for the laboratory date back to 1992 but many challenges including financial difficulties have kept the laboratory from becoming a fully functioning facility along the way. WHO supported the establishment of the laboratory first in 2012 and again in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for the laboratory and accelerated its establishment in 2020.