Global COVID-19 testing rates have dropped since 2021. FIND’s Bill Rodriguez says countries are “losing visibility.”
Between December 2021 and April 2022, COVID-19 testing declined considerably in both high- and low-income countries, according to FIND. In 25 countries, rates decreased more than 70%. Gabon, Denmark, Turkey, and DR Congo reported over 90% COVID-19 testing decreases.
Although test rates have fallen in most nations regardless of wealth, the highest impacts will likely be noticed in HICs, which had test rates approximately 1000 times greater than lower-income nations.
When you go from large to modest testing, you lose lots of visibility about how the problem was evolving, but when you go from absolutely no testing to far less, you never have the ability [to monitor the virus] in the very first place. Pandemic fatigue has driven several wealthy countries to stop testing too soon, he said, which is a high-risk strategy. “We must discuss the risks of going along this route.”
The Director General of WHO asked member states to continue COVID-19 testing in May. “This virus has astonished us at every turn—it has repeatedly torn through communities, and we can’t predict its route or ferocity. We relax at our peril”, he said.