Laboratory organisation and management of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Niger, West Africa

Background: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic unfolds, laboratory services have been identified as key to its containment This article outlines the laboratory organisation and management and control interventions in Niger Intervention: The capitol city of Niger, Niamey, adopted a ‘National COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan’ to strengthen the preparedness of the country for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 Laboratory training and diagnostic capacity building were supported by existing active clinical and research laboratories for more rapid and practicable responses The National Reference Laboratory for Respiratory Viruses located at the Centre de Recherche Medicale et Sanitaire was designated as the reference centre for COVID-19 testing The national plan for COVID-19 testing is being gradually adopted in other regions of the country in response to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 emergency and to ensure a more rapid turn-around time Lessons learnt: After the decentralisation of COVID-19 testing to other regions of the country, turn-around times were reduced from 48–72 h to 12–24 h Reducing turn-around times allowed Niger to reduce the length of patients’ stays in hospitals and isolation facilities Shortages in testing capacity must be anticipated and addressed In an effort to reduce risk of shortages and increase availability of reagents and consumables, Niamey diversified real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction kits for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 detection Recommendations: Continued investment in training programmes and laboratory strategy is needed in order to strengthen Niger’s laboratory capacity against the outbreak © 2020 AOSIS OpenJournals Publishing AOSIS (Pty) Ltd All rights reserved