The Africa Centers for disease control and prevention AFRICA CDC has urged countries on the continent to increase testing for the coronavirus as more states report different variants of the disease.

The African Union’s health agency said testing dropped by 21% last week despite fears of the spread of a more contagious and transmissible variant.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC during an online briefing Thursday, said six African nations including South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Uganda and Kenya have reported the B.1.617 strain that is devastating India.

Already, 24 African nations have reported cases of the British B.1.1.7 mutant virus with the same number of countries confirming the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa.

Nkengasong therefore reiterated the need for increased testing all time to catch up with the pandemic.