COVID-19: NCDC targets testing 2 million people in three months

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has set a target of testing two million people in the next three months to check the spread of Covid-19.

The Director-General of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, announced this at the daily Presidential Task Force (PTF) briefing on Tuesday.

“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

“This is a very ambitious target,” he said.

He added, “it is going to cost us a lot of money. So we need a lot of collaborations to do this”.

The NCDC chief said about 50,000 people would be tested per state to meet up the two million target depending on the population size.

He called for cooperation and collaboration of every state government to achieve this target.
He also urged Nigerians to limit travelling or avoid it altogether unless it was a matter of life and death.

Mr Ihekweazu said there was need to intensify efforts like other African countries in order to put an end to the viral infection.

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“In countries that have achieved a lot more in terms of testing like South Africa, we are lagging behind and now we have to catch up.

“We have learnt from every country that the only way to do it is to test more people,” he said.

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