Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has activated the virology laboratory at the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, Ebonyi state.
NCDC, on Wednesday, confirmed that the virology laboratory which has commenced Covid-19 testing brings the number of COVID-19 testing laboratories in Nigeria to seven.
Hitherto, there were six Covid-19 testing centres in Nigeria, namely, African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Disease at Redeemers’ University, Ede, Osun State, NCDC National Reference Laboratory (NRL), Gaduwa, Abuja; Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos; Nigeria Institute for Medical Research, Lagos; Irrua Teaching Hospital, Edo State; University College Hospital, Ibadan.
Nigerians have repeatedly called for expansion of testing centres to allow more people run the test, but government has also complained about shortage of PCR machines, trained manpower and reagents that are used to conduct the test.
Last Saturday, NCDC said: “We have expanded the number of molecular laboratories with the capacity to test for COVID-19 to six with the inclusion of the Virology Laboratory of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olurunnimbe Mamora, confirmed to journalists, on Monday, in Abuja, that seven new molecular laboratories would soon be added to existing ones to fast track the testing for Covid-19 in few weeks.
He said: “We project that in three weeks time, seven new molecular laboratories located in Abakaliki, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, and Sokoto would be added to the NCDC laboratory network to further expand testing opportunities nationwide.”
On Tuesday, NCDC further disclosed that Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) had entered into partnership with LifeBank, a healthcare technology and logistics company based in Lagos, to conduct drive-through test in order to make it easier for people to get tested and prevent the spread of CoVid-19.
It, therefore, asked Nigerians whose cases meet case definition for Covid-19 to register through their online platform and wait for further directive from the officials.
It, therefore warned against invasion of the facility by uninvited persons to avoid further spread of the virus to uninfected persons.