Cases of community transmission of the new coronavirus are growing in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, and a new strategy for testing is needed to prevent this, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

Community transmission refers to cases where patients had no travel history or known contact with infected people — worrying for health workers because it means the virus is moving undetected through the population.

John Nkengasong said countries should modify the way they test their population — instead of focusing on testing people arriving at airports, governments should switch to surveillance testing of those with flu-like symptoms.