The NCDC has said that the country’s laboratory facilities can now test more than 10,000 samples for COVID-19 daily.
The Director General of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, at the press conference, however, said the centre currently tests between 2,000 samples and above daily.
Ihekweazu added that the implication of the statistics is that the laboratories are not getting enough samples to operate at optimal capacity.
He said: “We are pushing hard on it; we are between about 2,000 tests per day or thereabouts; sometimes a little bit less. We have activated a new laboratory in Oyo State at the University College, Ibadan – affiliated to the University Teaching Hospital there. So, a lot of work is going on; in Ondo State, the Lassa fever laboratory has been converted to COVID-19; right now, Jigawa, Ekiti States, so there is a lot of work going on.
“However, today you may have seen the release of more testing numbers; it should have been released yesterday; they were delayed. So, we really need to emphasise these numbers. Right now, we are working at 10-20 capacity utilisation of our laboratories. So, we have the capacity to test a lot more. We can test about 10,000 samples per day and probably more if we are pushed hard. So, the laboratories are there; samples are not coming as sufficiently as we want. So, we really ask over this weekend, every state to push harder. We have been working with the states’ epidemiologists. The only way we can know if we are on top of this is by testing and we are ready to do that.”
He explained that Gene-xpert machines installed will start functioning as from June 14, adding that NCDC has been working round the clock over the week to distribute cartridges to the seven centres where the Gene-Xperts are located go make sure that they are ready for operations on June 14.
On his part, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said the ministry had repackaged the basic healthcare provision fund to conform with the provisions of the Act establishing it.
Ehanire said the fund had undergone some review and had become stronger and more robust.
“Basic healthcare provision fund was launched earlier by the president and it has started operating but a few months, the Senate Committee on Health invited the Ministry of Health and drew attention to certain areas, which they said were not in consonance with the Act and that we needed to correct those areas and that until this was done, we have halted activities.
“So, the correction took much longer time than was actually expected but the benefit of it is that something much nicer with a bigger package has emerged and those errors have been corrected. We have agreed to meeting with stakeholders to see how we would represent it to the public very soon,” he said.
Ehanire added that 45 per cent of the 9,000 primary healthcare centres have so far been rehabilitated across the country.