Our Experience:
COVID-19 Sample Transport

Expediting testing to support Nigeria’s public health response to COVID-19

2020

Situation

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged many public health systems throughout the globe and to this day, continues to have an immense public health impact. According to the World Health Organization, as of September 2020, there have been nearly a million deaths attributed to COVID-19 throughout the world. Nigeria is one of the African countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with nearly 60,000 cases.

The ability to contain outbreaks at their source through proactive and timely testing enables public health authorities to minimize the impact of COVID-19 within their county. Akesis worked to support the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) in expanding the scope of testing for COVID-19. This was especially important to ensure NCDC was able to provide COVID-19 testing for all states and all citizens.

Solution 

As Nigeria worked to build up their testing capacity, Akesis was able to support testing throughout the country by facilitating speedy transport of samples from collection sites to testing laboratories (center).

To do so, Akesis re-directed parts of their transportation fleet typically used for drug and lab commodity transportation in order to help close this critical gap in the country.

Results 

Akesis’ work to enhance COVID-19 sample transport helped the NCDC improve its response to the pandemic by minimizing the time between sample collection and diagnosis, in turn optimizing the availability of accurate data to inform public health decisions in Nigeria.