COVID-19: PDP Reps decry slow pace of tests on patients

The Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) led Minority Caucus leadership in the House of Representatives has decried the slow pace of COVID-19 tests across the country as the disease continues to spread.

This was revealed on Saturday in a statement signed by the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) who noted that the 2,000 COVID-19 tests carried out in Nigeria was grossly insufficient as the country records more positive cases of the disease.

The caucus also advised the federal government to upgrade the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) laboratories across the country to facilitate mass-testing for the virus as it continues to track over 6,000 contacts of positive cases.

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“The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has told us that only 2,000 Nigerians have been tested in over one month of combating COVID-19. This figure is quite low for a country of about 200 million people.

“Our first line of responsibility on this, therefore, is to ensure that testing services are available in, at least, all the states of the federation. If we are tracking over 6,000 contacts, then we need more testing facilities,” the statement by the caucus read in part.

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