…targets 4,000 testing of people daily nationwide
The Federal Government is to build isolation centres at the borders for Nigerians and other nationals entering the country for screening and isolation for COVID-19.
Also, the government plans to conduct 4,000 tests per day at the various centres across the country.
The Presidential Taskforce Force (PTF) on Coronavirus (COVID-19 which disclosed this, said the projects were a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Director-General of National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this at the 11th Joint briefing of the PTF on Tuesday.
According to him, they have been mandated to increase testing in Lagos to 2,000, FCT 1,000 and the rest of the country 1,000 per day.
He, however, said despite having 11 treating centers currently, the laboratory were being underutilized.
“We now have the capacity to test 1,500 people per day across the network. This capacity is not being fully utilized at the moment.
“The challenge right now is not the laboratory testing capacity is how active our public workforce is in identifying samples, collecting and sending them for testing.
“We have sufficient capacity to test 1,500 right now and we are not close to exhausting that capacity every day. But from today we have to push even harder.
“Our target following Mr. President’s speech is to get 2,000 samples per day in Lagos, 1,000 in Abuja and 1,000 for the rest of the country. These are targets we have agreed and we will push up. If we don’t create more light into what we are doing we don’t really understand where we are.
“The challenge is no longer with the labs, the challenge is in collecting samples from those identified as suspect cases,” he said.
The DG NCDC speaking on how long COVID19 testing takes in Nigeria said: “It takes 12 hours to report on negative case, longer for positive cases because we have to do repeat tests to confirm.
“The goal of the lockdown is not to completely stop the outbreak but instead to show that we can maintain sufficient levels of public health response within the context of a slowly-calibrated reopening of the economy. We now have two weeks to prove this.’’
On his part, Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said there are plans to build isolation points near the border entry points.
According to him, there are Nigerians coming by road who have to be allowed in; the protocol is to screen them and isolate them for 14 days under government supervision.
The minister also disclosed that the United Nations had donated $2 million and medical equipment and supplies including 50 ventilators, adding they have arrived in the country.
“They are being moved from Lagos to Abuja today. We will mobilize critical care doctors to every state to help set up ICUs and operate these ventilators.”
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and PTF Chairman, Mr Boss Mustapha, said the lockdown of FCT, Lagos and Ogun states was for the survival of the nation.
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