Some states have failed to send samples for COVID-19 testing —NCDC

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said on Friday some states were yet to bring in samples for testing to confirm if they had cases of COVID-19.

Ihekweazu, who disclosed this in an interview on Channels Television, said the NCDC was improving on its testing capacity for COVID-19.

He, however, said it was worrisome that some states had not sent in samples for testing.

The NCDC chief said: “It is a bit like pretending like the problem does not exist because you are not looking for it.

“In every state, we expect a certain number of people to fit the case definition of an acute respiratory infection without an underlying cause.

“If you take away contacts with travellers and with confirmed cases, the third part of our case definition which says anyone with an acute respiratory infection for which there is no underlying cause should have a sample collected to know whether they have this disease or not.

“So, we expect every state to submit a certain number of samples for testing every day. We have seen that some states have not submitted a single sample.

“We are doing an analysis on the number of samples we have received from some states, which we will share with all the governors.

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“We are going to send it back to them for them to look at their data and be honest with their people that there are no cases in their states.”

Ihekweazu said the NCDC had so far conducted 9,522 tests as of April 22.

He added that 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had confirmed cases of COVID-19.

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