UK-based Econet founder and philanthropist Strive Masiyiwa, who also serves as AU Special Envoy for COVID-19, has donated 120 000 Test Kits to Zimbabwe, along with Mobile Test Laboratories to be used at the country’s border posts.
The donation of Test Kits also includes 50 000 of the highly accurate PCR type Test, used by the government.
A spokesman for Higherlife Foundation (HLF) announced that some of these Kits will be handed directly to the government, to help them in their national efforts to combat the epidemic.
HLF is undertaking a donor co-funded initiative to test up to 10 000 Zimbabweans per day.
A new kind of Mobile Test Laboratory has also been ordered in Austria, which will allow the government to test travellers at the borders, within a matter of minutes. Dr Kennedy Mubaiwa MD, who runs the Higher Life Foundation said:
The borders are a potential flashpoint for super-spreading of the disease, and we have offered the government a new type of Laboratory to help them speed-testing at the Beitbridge border. Mobile Labs can clear about 5 000 tests per day.
Meanwhile, Dr Mubaiwa said Higherlife Foundation was running numerous work streams under its “Operation #KickOut COVID!”. He added:
We are working on numerous fronts, and we have secured a number of donors through Mr Masiyiwa and his family, who also co-fund projects that he arranges.
We want to defeat COVID, and we have good professional working relationships with all arms of government. We don’t do anything without discussing it with them. We are here to help the people of Zimbabwe, as we have done for more than 25 years.