Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease and Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu has disclosed that recovered Covid-19 patients will now be discharged after testing negative once to the virus.
Unlike the previous practice where patients must test negative twice before being certified as Covid-19 free, he said the number of tests have been reduced to one by the agency to free up spaces in the isolation facilities.
Ihekweazu, while speaking on Channels TV, Thursday, said the decision was taken due to challenges of bed space capacity in the country’s isolation centres.
He said: “So, the discharge criterion at the moment is a single negative test in Nigeria.
“We used to do two negative tests – 48 hours apart – but because of challenges of bed space capacity, we reduced that to a single negative test then discharge the patient to another one week of home isolation … that’s the policy at the moment.”
