Nigeria Can Now Test 1,500 People A Day For Coronavirus — Health Minister

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire has announced that Nigeria now has the capacity to test 1,500 people a day for coronavirus (COVID-19).

Ehanire disclosed this at Thursday’s briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.

The Minister said, “With the expanded national case definition and addition of two new laboratories to test for COVID-19 in Ibadan and Ebonyi States, the national testing capacity is now at 1,500 a day. I applaud all our health workers and emergency responders in this critical time.”

Ehanire also revealed that 71 per cent of 6,000 contacts have been traced and they have also intensified effort to reduce the numbers of suspected cases who have not been reached.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu disclosed that the health agency has deployed officials to 15 states to boost the fight against the spread of coronavirus.

He said, “Yesterday (Wednesday) we conducted the highest number of COVID-19 tests and recorded the highest number of positive cases in Nigeria,” Ihekweazu said.

“We have also deployed 15 rapid response teams to support 15 states. This is the largest deployment of resources ever for an outbreak in Nigeria.”

Recall that the virology laboratory of the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, Ebonyi which was activated for Coronavirus testing, brought the number of COVID-19 testing labs in Nigeria to seven.