By Elijah Ugani – Calabar
The Nigerian Center for Disease Control NCDC has responded to the allegations by the Cross River State Commissioners of Information and Health that the commission intends to transport samples from other states suspected to be negative to test run the GeneXpert machine at the Nigerian Naval Referral Hospital, Calabar in a press briefing held on Friday 18th June, 2020.
In a release by NCDC and sighted by TheLumineNews, indicates that the statements by the Cross River State Commissioners of Information and Health are misrepresentation of the Federal Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 testing strategy and efforts to protect Nigerians from this disease.
“The statements by the Cross River State Commissioners of Information and Orientation and Health are a misinterpretation of the Federal Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 testing strategy and efforts to protect the health of Nigerians from this disease”
In the release, NCDC explained that, “There are 400 sites in Nigeria with GeneXpert equipment for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. However, we have prioritised the rol-out of GeneXpert in States where there is a high level of community transmission and states with limited or no laboratory capacity for the diagnosis of COVID-19 at the moment.
“These are Abia, Adamawa, Berue, Borno, Cross River, Lagos, Enugu, Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Benue, and the FCT. Already, we have worked with NTBLCP and our partners to activated two GeneXpert laboratories in Kaduna and Nasarawa States. Eventually, we plar to roll out the GeneXpert testing sites for COVID-19 in every state in Nigeria.”
As at the time of filing this report, the COVID-19 pandemic update as provided by NCDC is as seen below.
