Covid-19: We’ve Developed Capacity to Test 3,000 Persons Daily –NCDC DG

'Dotun Akintomide
Writer

Ad

Rethinking Accountability in Nigeria’s Federation: Beyond the Presidency

By Sonny Iroche In the intricate tapestry of Nigeria’s federal republic, the structure of governance is designed to distribute power and responsibilities across multiple layers, fostering development from the grassroots to the national level. With one President and one Vice President at the helm, 36 states each governed by elected executives, and 774 Local Government…

‘It’s Getting Late’: Trump Calls US-India Trade ‘One-Sided Disaster’; Slams Russia oil, Arms Trade

US President Donald Trump on Monday called America's trade ties with India a "one-sided disaster," further stating that New Delhi has offered to reduce tariffs to "almost nothing" but it is "getting late" Narendra Modi's recent meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in…

Ranked: The World’s Top 25 Countries by Oil Consumption

Key Takeaways In 2024, U.S. oil consumption stood at 19 million barrels per day, a change of -0.1% from the previous year. China follows next, with 16.4 million barrels per day, changing -1.2% over the year. Over the past decade, India’s oil consumption has grown at one of the fastest rates globally, increasing 3.8% on…

Ad

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) can now carry out COVID-19 tests on at least 3000 persons daily across its centres, the Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu has said.

He disclosed that at the moment, there are 12 active testing laboratories in Nigeria.

He said that the target is to test 2000 samples in Lagos, 1000 in Abuja and the rest of the country daily, of the right people who meet the case definition.

Ihekweazu spoke during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Wednesday.

“We’re expanding our labs, we have provided states with sample collection kits and developing innovative methods to ensure testing.

“Ending of today, we are going to publish a testing and diagnostic strategy for the country so that everybody is aware of where we are and where we are going short and long term.

“That is, how we are going to introduce the TB facilities (GeneXpert Machines), HIV testing, and how we are going to end up with one lab per state”, he said.

On his part, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, explained that the Ministry has expanded the testing criteria to include cases with fever and respiratory tract symptoms.

To ensure maximum utilisation of our increased testing capacity, the minister said that the case definition and testing criteria have been expanded to include not only contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases with fever and respiratory tract symptoms but also all persons with fever and respiratory tract symptoms of unknown cause.

“The advent of community transmission marks the evolution of our initial strictly containment strategy.

“Risk communication to the public and coordination with the state level COVID-19 response preparedness groups, are going to be scaled up.

“There is also an increased drive to detect cases more rapidly, especially in hotspot communities,” the minister said.

He added that a guideline has been produced by the FMoH accreditation committee to ensure that standards are maintained at all COVID-19 isolation and treatment centres across the country.

Ad

X whatsapp