We have already reported several times about the great and successful cooperation between Ndlovu Care Group, GIZ and the Hugo Tempelman Foundation. Now, on our trip 14 days ago, we experienced first-hand how valuable this help is. Due to the panic that suddenly gripped the world about OMIKRON, it became essential to create a PCR test at short notice. No problem for the Ndlovu Care Group laboratory.

The special feature: extensive screening is carried out here. The samples taken are not only tested for SARS-Cov-2 viruses. They are also tested simultaneously for HIV 1 and 2 and for RSV. RSV has recently spread enormously among children, especially in Germany.

This is the way research is conducted in South Africa. Generating as much information as possible in order to recognize connections as quickly as possible.

Thanks to the generous support of GIZ, which provided Hugo Tempelman with a sequencing machine for research, important studies are being carried out in this laboratory in rural South Africa in the middle of nowhere. The Ndlovu Research Center is one of the few laboratories in South Africa that can sequence a genome at all.

In the current case of the OMIKRON variant, this device is essential in order to be able to research the observations that have significance for events around the world.

And it came at exactly the right time: no one could have guessed in August at the handover ceremony for the examination device what an essential role it would play in the fall.

The South African researchers are to be thanked for their work, transparency and directness in the flow of information.

We have already reported on the research laboratory:

The Ndlovu Research Center on the upswing thanks to GIZ and the Hugo Tempelman Foundation

GIZ as a partner in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic

Hugo Tempelman: Expert opinion on the current Covid situation and social restrictions

On August 12, 2021, the handover of the next-generation sequencer, the TF Genexsus, took place at the Ndlovu Research Center.

Representatives from the German Embassy, GIZ and NICD were present to celebrate this important expansion of the research laboratory. Variant studies for COVID19 and the development, tracking and discovery of these variants will be an important part of the development of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the control of the epidemic.

The Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) does not have a laboratory in the three northern provinces. With this generous donation from the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), which was initiated by the Hugo Tempelman Foundation, the Ndlovu Research Laboratory can contribute to this important program.

Dr. Andrea Knigge, GIZ: “It is a pleasure to work with the Ministry of Health and the Ndlovu Research Centre. It is fantastic to see such facilities working and bearing fruit. The introduction of the Genexsus Sequencer is a big step forward in the control and development of the pandemic in South Africa.

Thanks to the Hugo Tempelman Foundation, GIZ is supporting the Ndlovu Care Group with a generous donation. This made it possible to purchase equipment that the Ndlovu laboratory urgently needs in the fight against the corona pandemic in order to participate in SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests in a variety of ways. The total capacity that has now been built up in the laboratory is around 1500-2000 PCR tests per day. These can be performed with a turn-around time of less than 24 hours.

The ten thousand test kits donated make it possible to carry out free tests for the community of Moutse and help to better understand the current situation in the region.

Ndlovu Care Group has offered assistance to the South African Department of Health in the detection of the COVID19 pandemic. The NICD (National Institute for Communicable Diseases) has approved the laboratory’s standards and issued accreditation for COVID19 testing.

The laboratory was classified as an “overflow laboratory”. The recognition by the NHLS and the NICD as a partner laboratory for COVID19 testing is a very valuable recognition of the quality of the Ndlovu research laboratory.
This will definitely contribute to the sustainability of the research laboratory in the future and is a way to expand the cooperation with the NHLS / NICD and the Ministry of Health in both provinces.

This could only be achieved through the generous support of GIZ. The Ndlovu Care Group would like to continue the cooperation and support South Africa in its efforts to improve health care and research, especially in the marginalized rural areas where infrastructure and quality services are often lacking.

We are sincerely grateful for the cooperation and the donation.