The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a new grant of $12 million to the Africa Public Health Foundation to help expand the geographic coverage of testing and to strengthen contact tracing for COVID-19 in Africa.

Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation while announcing the grant on Thursday said equitable access to testing and tracing is essential to rapidly identify and respond to COVID-19 outbreaks until a vaccine is widely available.

The funding will support a broader effort to accelerate equitable access to testing technologies, increase testing of asymptomatic persons, and reduce community transmission of the virus in the sub-Saharan Africa region.

Africa reportedly has conducted a little more 30 million tests against COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.