Ethiopia to send COVID-19 test results via text message

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Ethiopia on Friday unveiled a system through which people can receive their COVID-19 test results through text messages.

People who test for the virus will receive the result on their phone within three hours, local broadcaster FANA quoted the Ethiopian Public Health Institute as saying.

The institute’s regular hotline number, 8335, will be used to send notifications and the results, according to the report.

At the start of August, Ethiopia scaled up its COVID-19 response efforts with a community mobilization and testing campaign that aimed to conduct 100,000 tests.

Last week, Health Minister Lia Kebede said the campaign had proved to be very successful.

The Horn of Africa nation had recorded 856 fatalities from the novel coronavirus by Thursday.

At least 56,213 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the country of over 110 million, while 20,283 patients have recovered so far.