The director-general of the NCDC has stated in a press briefing that the NCDC has set for itself a target of testing two million people across Nigeria in the next three months in the fight against Coronavirus.
Recall that Melinda Gates had stated that lack of widespread testing was the reason that African countries were reporting low Coronavirus numbers.
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu disclosed that the two million would come to about 50,000 per state which, he noted, was a very ambitious target.
This comes after the NCDC director-general had appealed to manufacturers to supply Coronavirus test kits to Nigeria as the country was severely in need of more test kits.
“We are lagging behind in testing in Nigeria but now we have to catch up. We will need the support of all the states,” he states.
He noted that Nigerians should avoid all non-essential travel because the virus was now in 32 states across the country.
Ihekweazu, however, called on Nigerians to seek to limit transmission in the country by discouraging inter-state travel. “It doesn’t fly about on its own from state to state; it is carried by humans,” he says.
He, however, confirmed that the Molecular Laboratory at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano, was now back, open and carrying out tests on COVID-19.
Recall that a woman had cried for help to have her daughter and grandchildren get tested in Kano. The woman had lost her son-in-law to suspected Covid-19 disease because there was no facility in Kano State to test him. So, this is, indeed, good news for Kano in particular and Nigeria in general.
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