Connect with us

News

COVID-19: Amid shortage of kits, Lagos targets 2,000 testing capacity daily

Published

on

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Saturday hinted on plans by his government to increase the state’s testing capacity for COVID-19 from its current 850 capacity to 1500 and 2000 daily.

He said the target was subject to the availability of extraction kits considering the acute global shortage of it currently.

The governor spoke when he gave an update on the COVID-19 situation in the state in a live broadcast, Saturday, the 11th in the series.

Sanwo-Olu, who also is the state COVID-19 incident commander said:

“Let me say, as I have said before, that the success of our efforts, at ramping up testing, is part of the reason why we are seeing a significant escalation in the number of cases in Lagos State.

“Quite clearly, also, we are firmly in the community transmission stage of the infection, and the only way to be sure we are making all the right decisions is ensuring that we continue to scale up testing.

“We now have four testing facilities in Lagos State, and we remain grateful to the NCDC and all other partners who are involved.

“Our combined lab capacity is at about 850 tests daily. This is easily scalable to 1500 and 2000 subject to the availability of extraction kits considering the acute global shortage.

“Lagos State has paid for over 20,000 extraction kits and has placed an order for another 20,000 in its bid to test at least 120,000 in the next 60 days.

“50 per cent of the backlog, I spoke about recently, has been cleared which is also responsible for the recent seemingly high rate of positive cases in the last couple of days.

“Suppliers of kits are the manufacturers and their local representatives. However, the bid is open to any company with repute and integrity who can supply the desired kits to specification.

“In this same vein, I have also mandated the state laboratory apparatus to commence the local production of certain items used for the diagnostic process and this has commenced already,” he said.

Continuing, the governor said that the state had also started a biweekly procurement of laboratory needed to prevent running out of the materials going forward, until at least 120,000 tests were done in about two months.

“In addition to increasing Testing capacity, we are also actively increasing our isolation capacity. You will also see a change in our isolation strategy in the Weeks ahead, as we transition towards decentralisation.

“What this means is that we will be introducing community management of cases, by accrediting and incorporating primary health care facilities and private healthcare facilities for the management of mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19 patients.

“We must be careful to ensure that this is not done at the expense of the capacity required to handle other medical cases.

“There is also the important task of ensuring that we are collecting all the right data and using these data to plan and to revise our response as a state.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Sanwo-Olu vows to re-impose total lockdown over guidelines violation

“I am pleased to note that Lagos State is developing an emergency digital response platform that will help us collect the data necessary for informed decision making.

“While we will continue to pay attention to the stories and experiences being shared in other places, I would like to assure you that the data we gather, and the safety of all of you the good people of Lagos, will continue to be the prime determinants of our decision-making,” he said.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now