Donors bet a U.S. firm could transform disease testing in Africa -- and then COVID-19 hit

By David Lewis and Allison Martell (Reuters) - For much of last year, the coronavirus crept, undetected, across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Test samples had to be sent more than 1,500 kilometres from remote hospitals to the capital Kinshasa. Results took weeks to come back. Some of the infected returned home, spreading the virus. In Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, bodies piled up in the morgue. Senior doctors described total confusion. Five doctors and 10 nurses were among those who died, according to one medic who spoke on condition of anonymity. It needn't have been thi...