The Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, Africa’s busiest airport and the continent’s leading gateway, is aspiring to revive its COVID-19-affected passenger traffic with a newly launched Chinese operated state-of-the-art COVID-19 testing lab.
The newly launched high-end COVID-19 testing lab, Huo Yan Air Lab, which is inside the premises of Ethiopia’s international flight hub, is administered by the BGI Health Ethiopia, a subsidiary of China’s biotech giant, the BGI Genomics Co., Ltd.
The Ethiopian flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, expects the lab, equipped with cutting-edge technologies, to inject the much-needed momentum in terms of easing the pressure through the provision of timely and accurate COVID-19 testing.
“Having this facility in the airport will enable us to facilitate the testings easily available to our passengers as well as it will enable us to do it in a faster basis to address any requirement that might have for our passengers,” Acting Chief Operating Officer of Ethiopian Airlines Retta Melaku told Xinhua in a recent interview. “We believe this facilitation and convenience will enable our passengers to develop their confidence on flying from the Addis Ababa hub at the Bole International Airport.”
According to Retta, the facility is the outcome of the excellent partnership between Ethiopia’s flag carrier and the BGI Health Ethiopia towards ensuring the safety of passengers in line with all international requirements.
With the capacity of undertaking 1,000 COVID-19 tests a day, which could be further augmented to 5,000 tests per day with further expansion, the COVID-19 testing lab is the Chinese company’s first-ever high-end laboratory in the East African region.
The facility is said to be the continuation of the company’s growing portfolio in the African continent on the backdrop of similar other cutting-edge technology laboratories operating in other African countries, such as Togo, Gabon, Angola…