COVID-19: NCDC to increase testing laboratories, says Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit not validated
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it will expand its testing capacity for COVID-19 from six laboratories to 13 in the next three weeks.
NCDC, through its verified Twitter account on Sunday, noted that the new laboratories would be in Abakaliki, Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto, Port-Harcourt, Jos and Kaduna.
NCDC has two laboratories in Lagos, while Abuja, Ibadan, Osun and Edo have one respectively.
“We have expanded the numbers of labs with capacity to test for COVID-19 to six with the inclusion of Virology Laboratory of University College Hospital, Ibadan.
“Tomorrow, we will be in Abakaliki to set up another lab as we quickly ramp up COVID-19 testing capacity in Nigeria”, NCDC tweeted.
With increasing cases of COVID-19 in the country, the need for additional facilities to conduct the test has become necessary.
This is to avoid losing probable cases to the community.
To cope with the insufficient laboratory for COVID-19 test, some Nigerians had embraced the use of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kit for COVID-19 to know their health status.
NCDC, however, warned that Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kit for COVID-19 has not been validated, adding that the risk of false result was high with the kit.
“We are aware of validation studies going on. Until these are completed, we cannot procure RDTs, because we do not know if they work,” it said.
NCDC report shows that there are 97 confirm cases.
Lagos has 59 cases, Abuja- 16; Oyo- seven; Ogun- three; Enugu, Edo, Bauchi and Osun has two cases each, while Ekiti, Rivers, Benue and Kaduna has one case respectively.
COVID-19: NCDC to increase testing laboratories, says Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit not validated
