COVID-19 ECHO Session #41: Africa CDC Trusted Travel Platform

Following the consultative meeting on Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Trusted Travel Policy for the continent, conducted on 26 March 2021, this session focuses on “Creating a trusted network of COVID-19 testing laboratories”. As the continent battles with COVID-19, delivering trusted laboratory results will be crucial to opening borders and economies. Africa CDC, ASLM and PanaBios are coming together to strengthen the concept of a ‘Trusted Laboratory’ COVID-19 testing network across Africa, using advanced but environment-appropriate digital technology.

In this session, we discuss the digital innovation that seeks to create a bridge between Africa’s high-quality laboratories and seamless travel. We initiate a conversation about how travellers can identify accredited or certified laboratories for COVID-19 testing, and how the proposed ‘Trusted Laboratories’ digital infrastructure could help governments across the continent and the world make data-driven decisions about which laboratories they trust to provide health credentials to visitors travelling to their countries. Such a platform could also benefit airlines and others who want to create health bubbles and corridors to keep their customers safe from infection by quickly identifying laboratories with whom they can cooperate in validating health credentials.

Speakers:
• Nqobile Ndlovu, CEO, African Society for Laboratory Medicine
• Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Deputy Director, Africa CDC
• Paulo Gomes, Co-Chair, AfroChampions & Board Member, African Union COVID-19 Response Fund
• Dr Talkmore Maruta, Senior Biosafety and Biosecurity Officer, ASLM and Africa CDC