59 Labs To Test For COVID-19 Now In Nigeria, 2 Rapid Test Kits Nears Validation – NCDC

…Says 250,000 Nigerians tested so far

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Thursday said Nigeria now has 59 laboratories with the capacity to test for COVID-19 across 29 states and the FCT, while two rapid diagnostic test kits are nearing validation.

Director General of NCDC Chikwe Ihekweazu made this disclosure on Thursday, adding that the centre is working to ensure that testing capacity is available in remaining states across the country.

According to him, in a bid to scale up national testing Ihekweazu said the centre is leveraging on existing laboratory and converting them to test for COVID-19.

The said the two lab nearing validation are the high throughput labs that existed for HIV testing by GeneXperts inclusive of private Laboratories and rapid diagnostic test kits.

The DG said there are 45 labs that can carry out real time PTR testing across the country, while 4 mega PCR labs have been activated to include; two national reference lab and the defence reference lab in Abuja, one lab at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching hospital and another in Lagos.

Ihekweazu also informed that seven private Laboratories have been activated in Lagos, while two are almost ready in Abuja.

“The private sector have seen its not as easy as we originally have thought”, he said.

He added that 13 GeneXperts have been activated in 10 states, out of 400 available in the country.

On rapid diagnostic test kits, Ihekweazu said the centre have been working with the a Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria to validate a number of kits.

“There are two that are showing good promise, the validation process is ongoing and in the next couple of weeks, we should be able to know if they are able to be included”, he said.

On the target to test two million people by the end of this month, he said the testing in itself is not the goal, but how to bring the people into care through testing and enable contact tracing to happen for those who are positive and generally move the system along.

On complints from Nigerians over delay in getting COVID-19 test results, Ihekweazu informed that an online platform is underway, where patients can access using a code to download their results once they get a message notification.

“That platform is almost ready, we will be piloting it in Abuja first, once it demonstrates utility, we will scale it up across the country”, he said.

Ihekweazu said the centre is ramping up stockpile of reagents and the country will have foresee testing challenges

He further informed that 250,000 people have been tested in the country so far, adding that currently, Nigeria carries out 3,000-4,000 tests daily.