We can’t accurately measure a state’s success against COVID-19 without testing —NCDC

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, on Thursday, charged state governments to intensify sample collection and testing for COVID-19.

Ihekweazu told journalists at a forum in Abuja that no matter how intensive the state governments’ preventive measures were, success in controlling the outbreak could not be assessed without estimating the actual burden of the disease through testing.

He said: “No matter how intensive preventive measures are, there’s no way to assess states’ success or failure in managing COVID-19 without conducting more tests to estimate the burden of the disease.”

The NCDC chief stressed that testing is critical to the national COVID-19 response and promised that the centre would continue to scale up its testing capacity.

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“Our goal is to limit transmission,” Ihekweazu added.

He also implored Nigerians to support the public health response to COVID-19 by taking responsibility to limit the transmission of the virus.

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