NCDC boss, Ihekweazu has revealed that companies are now seeking help of the Centre before they reopen.
According to him, the PTF has received demands from companies, which intend to test their entire workforce before people are allowed back into work.
He said, “We have got a lot of queries around rapid diagnostic test kits and companies intending to test their entire workforce before people are allowed back to work. So, I decided to use this opportunity today to talk about rapid diagnostic test kits.”
Speaking further on the RDT kits, he said, “Nothing will excite us more than if there is a validated kit available. But at the moment, we don’t know of any and, very often, we are asked, ‘Would it not be good to have a cheap test, a 15-minute or 20-minute test?”
The NCDC DG said, in the meantime, the centre was relying on its polymerase chain reaction testing capacity, which, according to him, it continued to build up.
He stated that the immediate target was to have one lab per state, adding however that those following carefully would see some states had much more than one lab.
Ihekweazu noted that, in the “next couple of weeks,” the PTF would push every state to increase its testing and collection.
He said, “The labs are ready. They have reagents. The entire infrastructure is ready. We now need physicians, public health practitioners, states and people.
“Citizens, if you’re sick and you feel you meet the case definition, please have the confidence to approach the public health infrastructure to find out if you have this disease or not.
“Only through doing that will we be able to manage it successfully and prevent further transmission.”
NCDC insists on Kogi positive cases
Speaking on the situation in Kogi State, where two COVID-19 cases were confirmed, the NCDC DG noted that Ehanire was in touch with Governor Yahaya Bello “over the last couple of days.”
He added, “I think everybody is working very hard to resolve this issue. There’s actually no dilemma in the two cases. They followed normal practice. These were patients that were referred from the Federal Medical Centre to the National Hospital. This is a normal referral pathway when you have a case
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