Out of about 200 million Nigerians, the Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control (NCDC) has set a target to test two million people
for COVID-19 across the country in the next three months.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, described the
target as very ambitious, and therefore sought the collaboration of
all social partners, and the state governors to achieve this
target.
Speaking during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task
Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Ihekweazu, said the laboratory strategic
group that is responding to the outbreak has set itself a target of
testing two million people in the next three months.
According to him, the goal of the response team is to avoid a
single case in any of the four states still without any reported
case of COVID-19, adding that the goal was really to avoid
transmission, infections and to keep the states with no case or few
cases exactly that way.
“How are we going to do this?” The NCDC boss said Nigeria has
learnt from countries that the only way to achieve this is to test
many people.
Ihekweazu said: “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. We are working very hard with our development partners and
all our friends to equip our labs to be able to do this.
“It is going to cost us a lot of money but we can’t do this
without a lot of collaboration from everybody. A country that has
achieved a lot more in terms of testing is South Africa. Not only
that they have tested more, they have tested more as a proportion
of their population.
“We are lagging behind, but now we have to catch up. So, when I
referred to this, it is really an epidemiological indicator of how
well a response is doing. In order to test two million people in
three months across the country, we need to test about 50,000 per
state plus-minus, depending on your population size.
“There is no other way we can do this, we need cooperation and
collaboration of every state government in Nigeria, every
department of public health, and we need the collaboration of the
people living in these states.”
He added: “The only entering point into control of this outbreak
is through testing. We really cannot understand the size of the
problem if we do not test. So, we are going to try, working with
all our partners.
“We have built on our lab size, and expanded capacity. Now we
need to build on the supplying side so that we see the samples
coming. There is no other way to do this than working
collaboratively with our biggest clients, for us as a government,
the state government and their teams.”
Over the next few weeks, Ihekweazu said he would be engaging
aggressively with every state, “getting them buy in, asking them to
work with us as we increase capacity to test, but also increase
capacity to send in the samples.”
He stated further: “So, I am really seeking for your
collaboration and your support, the support of all the governors of
every state in Nigeria to work with us to see whether we can
achieve this target of 2 million tests in Nigeria in the next three
months.”
He pointed out that Nigerians can only reduce number of
transmissions by staying at home, and by reducing travels, adding,
“If we limit traveling to essential services and products, then we
have a chance of reducing the impact of this outbreak on our
country.”
Out of about 200 million Nigerians, the Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control (NCDC) has set a target to test two million people
for COVID-19 across the country in the next three months.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, described the
target as very ambitious, and therefore sought the collaboration of
all social partners, and the state governors to achieve this
target.
Speaking during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task
Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Ihekweazu, said the laboratory strategic
group that is responding to the outbreak has set itself a target of
testing two million people in the next three months.
According to him, the goal of the response team is to avoid a
single case in any of the four states still without any reported
case of COVID-19, adding that the goal was really to avoid
transmission, infections and to keep the states with no case or few
cases exactly that way.
“How are we going to do this?” The NCDC boss said Nigeria has
learnt from countries that the only way to achieve this is to test
many people.
Ihekweazu said: “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. We are working very hard with our development partners and
all our friends to equip our labs to be able to do this.
“It is going to cost us a lot of money but we can’t do this
without a lot of collaboration from everybody. A country that has
achieved a lot more in terms of testing is South Africa. Not only
that they have tested more, they have tested more as a proportion
of their population.
“We are lagging behind, but now we have to catch up. So, when I
referred to this, it is really an epidemiological indicator of how
well a response is doing. In order to test two million people in
three months across the country, we need to test about 50,000 per
state plus-minus, depending on your population size.
“There is no other way we can do this, we need cooperation and
collaboration of every state government in Nigeria, every
department of public health, and we need the collaboration of the
people living in these states.”
He added: “The only entering point into control of this outbreak
is through testing. We really cannot understand the size of the
problem if we do not test. So, we are going to try, working with
all our partners.
“We have built on our lab size, and expanded capacity. Now we
need to build on the supplying side so that we see the samples
coming. There is no other way to do this than working
collaboratively with our biggest clients, for us as a government,
the state government and their teams.”
Over the next few weeks, Ihekweazu said he would be engaging
aggressively with every state, “getting them buy in, asking them to
work with us as we increase capacity to test, but also increase
capacity to send in the samples.”
He stated further: “So, I am really seeking for your
collaboration and your support, the support of all the governors of
every state in Nigeria to work with us to see whether we can
achieve this target of 2 million tests in Nigeria in the next three
months.”
He pointed out that Nigerians can only reduce number of
transmissions by staying at home, and by reducing travels, adding,
“If we limit traveling to essential services and products, then we
have a chance of reducing the impact of this outbreak on our
country.”