By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
To ensure that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) increases its testing capacity nationwide, the Federal Government has approved new guidelines for private laboratories wishing to join in the testing of samples of Covid-19 patients.
NCDC Director-General, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu revealed this much on Monday during the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 pandemic daily press briefing in Abuja.
He disclosed that the new guidelines for private laboratories that may wish to join the Federal Government approved laboratory facilities as Covid-19 Testing Centers will be made public later Monday, adding that “the new guidelines will be posted on the NCDC website later today (Monday)”.
Dr. Ihekweazu argued that NCDC has been on top of its job by expanding the scope of contact tracing and testing capacity among other things put in place to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
According to him, ” We are learning new things every day and we are adapting to it. This virus is new and nobody has seen it before so we are doing everything to contain it”.
Dr. Ihekweazu also acknowledged that the increasing members of Covid-19 positive cases is something for the NCDC to worry about but assured that strategies are being put in place to tackle the virus.
“We must acknowledge the fact that there is high community transmission in some states like Kano, Lagos, Bauchi, FCT, etc, but we are on top of it”, he concluded.
Meanwhile, the PTF on Covid-19 pandemic National Coordinator, Dr Sani Aliyu has also assured that the Federal Government will continue to monitor the situations in the North East and North Western geopolitical zones and will ensure that the virus is curtailed and subdued.
He, therefore, called on the state Governors across Nigeria to provide isolation centers as a proactive approach to the envisaged high numbers of people testing positive because of the NCDC high number of testing capacity now.
