{"id":1665,"date":"2020-09-05T10:26:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T08:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=366334"},"modified":"2020-09-05T10:26:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T08:26:28","slug":"mobile-app-aims-to-speed-up-border-reopenings-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/2020\/09\/05\/mobile-app-aims-to-speed-up-border-reopenings-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile app aims to speed up border reopenings in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two major African public bodies are promoting a new technology that could connect the continent\u2019s Covid-19 testing centers and ease a reopening of travel across the region.<\/p>\n

The African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention are encouraging member states to integrate the mobile-based PanaBIOS platform that would allow results from facilities across the continent to be centralized. So far, only Ghana is using the service.<\/p>\n

\u201cGhana is being used as the pioneer,\u201d the West African country\u2019s communication minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said in the capital, Accra. \u201cThe learnings from the uptake of the app and the usage of the app will be shared with the Africa CDC and be applied by other African countries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Most African nations have either kept their borders closed since the pandemic began to spread or reopened with tight restrictions. Some require multiple negative coronavirus tests and, in some cases, self-isolation at a designated hotel at the expense of the traveler. Ghana, which resumed international flights Tuesday, still requires a pre-arrival and on-arrival test to gain entry.<\/p>\n

PanaBIOS may eliminate the need for travelers to take repeated tests so long as they are coming from a country that\u2019s also signed up to the platform, Preston Asante, a spokesman, said at the Ghanaian launch. The implementation of the technology, developed by Koldchain, a Kenyan startup, is being funded by AfroChampions, an organization that brings together some of the biggest companies on the continent.<\/p>\n

Reviving Economy<\/h3>\n

Easing travel restrictions is vital for the success of an African Union-led plan to implement the world\u2019s largest free-trade zone, which is now due to start in 2021 following a delay caused by the pandemic. A full deal could cover a market of more than 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion. All but one of Africa\u2019s 55 countries \u2014 Eritrea \u2014 have signed up to the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reopening of the points of entry and exit which have been temporarily closed to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 is necessary,\u201d the African Union said in an emailed response to questions. The bloc proposes a reopening at least one month before the trade deal takes effect, it said.<\/p>\n

The Africa CDC is keen to \u201cfacilitate the movement of people while at the same time ensuring critical public health measures are in place,\u201d its director, John Nkengasong, said last month.<\/p>\n

Now read: Government\u2019s crazy COVID-19 spending \u2013 Up to R14,750 per digital thermometer<\/a><\/h3>\n

Source: MyBroadband<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two major African public bodies are promoting a new technology that could connect the continent\u2019s Covid-19 testing centers and ease a reopening of travel across the region. The African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention are encouraging member states to integrate the mobile-based PanaBIOS platform that would allow results from facilities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[52,53,54,55,56,8,57,59,72,60,61,62,63,64,65,66],"class_list":["post-1665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-co-za","tag-com","tag-affordable","tag-cheap","tag-cpanel","tag-development","tag-domain","tag-hosting","tag-interweb","tag-joomla","tag-registration","tag-reseller","tag-shared","tag-south-africa","tag-website","tag-wordpress"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}