The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday called on countries to increase testing capacity for COVID-19 as vaccine development processes show high rates of success.

He said that testing remains an important tool to detect the virus as vaccines roll out and the vaccination process starts with vulnerable groups of the population, which still gives enough leeway for the virus to circulate.

Tedros discussed the organization's efforts to provide rapid tests to countries beginning with only 2 African countries having access to testing at the beginning of the pandemic, and all of the countries in Africa having access now.

However, Tedros said the global body is still facing a $500 million funding gap to maximize the use of rapid tests.

Globally, almost half of all coronavirus cases are just in four countries, and almost 70 per cent of all cases and deaths are in just 10 countries.

The world has a total of 61 million cases and 1.43 million deaths as of Friday. Nearly 39 million people have recovered from the virus.

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