The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has announced the inclusion of five new COVID-19 testing laboratories to the list of molecular laboratory network in the country.
NCDC disclosed this via its official twitter handle@NCDCgov, it disclosed that there are now 58 laboratories with capaciy to test for COVID-19 in 30 states of the federation.
The centre identified the laboratories as Edo Specialist Hospital, Benin; ATBU Teaching Hospital, Bauchi; Rivers Indorama Company Molecular Lab; State Specialist Hospital, Amachara, Abia; and University of Abuja, Gwagwalada GX Lab.
The tweet Reads:
“We are pleased to announce inclusion of 5 new labs in our Molecular Laboratory Network:
Edo Specialist Hospital, Benin
ATBU Teaching Hospital, Bauchi
Rivers Indorama Company Molecular Lab
State Specialist Hospital, Amachara, Abia
University of Abuja, Gwagwalada GX Lab,”
“There are currently 58 labs in 30 states with the capacity to test for #COVID19 in Nigeria.”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control [NCDC] has taken a total of 214,228 samples with 37,225 returning positive.
On April 28, 2020, the Federal Government announced its target of testing at least two million people within the next three months.
At a Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing, NCDC Director-General, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the move became necessary as the country was lagging behind in terms of testing.
Ihekweazu stated;
“The laboratory strategic group that is responding to this outbreak has set itself a target of testing two million people in the next three months,”
(c) Control TV 2020.
