MON, APRIL 27 2020-theG&BJournal- Cross Rivers, Nassarawa, Yobe and Kogi states have not sent any samples for testing since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) DG Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu said today during the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.
And that may explain why there are no confirmed cases announced yet from the States.
Ihekwuazu made a passionate plea to the state’s public health chiefs to send in their samples for test, adding that the NCDC and the Task Force are not satisfied with number of samples collected nationwide so far.
We want to encourage every State in Nigeria to send in samples for testing.
‘’You can’t hide this. Eventually it would emerge. It is better we understand what is happening early than to leave it until we start hearing stories of death. So we are encouraging the public health officials in these states to push out people that that have pneumonia and acute respiratory infections. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Please collect samples send them to us let us test and know whether you have this thing circulating in your state to mount an appropriate response. We cannot know if we don’t test.’’
He said, ‘’we need to test more but to test more we need to collect more samples and the collection part of the testing process is the responsibility of States and their public health chiefs.’’
Meanwhile, the NCDC is bringing on board more private sector testing laboratories. The DNA lab in Kaduna has been activated and the latest is 54G lab activated in Lagos and Ogun States and by next weekend in Kano.
|twitter:@theGBJournal|email: info@govandbusinessjournal.com.ng|
