…Says it now tests 2,000 samples daily
The Federal Government on Thursday urged citizens to hold states
government responsible for the number of tests being carried out
daily across the country.
It said that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is
poised to test 2,000 samples daily, however, the major challenge
lies in states’ capacity to collect and send in the right samples
for testing in time.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, made
this known during a television programme.
According to him, “Right now we are testing 2,000 samples a day
in all the laboratories in our network. In the national reference
lab for example, no samples stay till the next day; every single
sample comes out the same day or very early the next morning.
“We are testing every sample that comes through. This is the
same for other laboratories in our network. There hasn’t been any
stock-out of reagents recently and we are maintaining that supply
chain.
“Many of the reagents that we expecting are arriving this week
and some next week. Right now, the challenge is on the state to
collect more samples and send them to the lab to enable us do the
testing that we need to do to inform the outbreak response across
the country, while maintaining the case definition that we’ve
offered.
“We have published the number of samples collected across every
state in Nigeria. People should interrogate the state that are not
collecting the sample through which the diagnosis has been made. We
are doing our part in the NCDC with the support of the Federal
Government, partners and private sector, and we will continue to
build up our capacity.
“In terms of the lab capacity, we are ready to do a lot more;
the labs have organised themselves and they’re working around the
clock. We are happy with the evolution of our laboratory capacity,
and we just need the rest of the system to work together to get in
the samples from the right people into the labs to enable the
testing happen.”
He added: “When I say we will test 2 million, what I mean
precisely is that the country will have the ability to test 2
million people in 3 months. Meeting that target depends on many
parts of the chain – who is collecting the sample, appropriate
collection and sending it to the labs.
“If you see that we test 1,000 samples in the day, that is
exactly the number of samples that we get; we are not going to
manufacture samples in order to meet some fictitious targets. The
target that we have set for ourselves is in terms of the capacity
that we have, but the actual throughput is dependent on the system,
the people collecting the sample from the right individuals.
“The laboratories are good to go but our challenge now is the
other systems to join us in this battle. However, remember that
testing is not a magic bullet; right now we need to accommodate the
people that come out positive, and show that we are carrying out
these non-pharmaceutical intervention, so that we reduce
transmission and the number of cases that we are seeing.
“Testing is important, but I see that there is an overt focus on
testing because of the numbers that were published; there are other
parts of the chain that needs to work for us to get on top of this
outbreak. If we keep focusing on one part of that chain we missed
the bigger picture.”
…Says it now tests 2,000 samples daily
The Federal Government on Thursday urged citizens to hold states
government responsible for the number of tests being carried out
daily across the country.
It said that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is
poised to test 2,000 samples daily, however, the major challenge
lies in states’ capacity to collect and send in the right samples
for testing in time.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, made
this known during a television programme.
According to him, “Right now we are testing 2,000 samples a day
in all the laboratories in our network. In the national reference
lab for example, no samples stay till the next day; every single
sample comes out the same day or very early the next morning.
“We are testing every sample that comes through. This is the
same for other laboratories in our network. There hasn’t been any
stock-out of reagents recently and we are maintaining that supply
chain.
“Many of the reagents that we expecting are arriving this week
and some next week. Right now, the challenge is on the state to
collect more samples and send them to the lab to enable us do the
testing that we need to do to inform the outbreak response across
the country, while maintaining the case definition that we’ve
offered.
“We have published the number of samples collected across every
state in Nigeria. People should interrogate the state that are not
collecting the sample through which the diagnosis has been made. We
are doing our part in the NCDC with the support of the Federal
Government, partners and private sector, and we will continue to
build up our capacity.
“In terms of the lab capacity, we are ready to do a lot more;
the labs have organised themselves and they’re working around the
clock. We are happy with the evolution of our laboratory capacity,
and we just need the rest of the system to work together to get in
the samples from the right people into the labs to enable the
testing happen.”
He added: “When I say we will test 2 million, what I mean
precisely is that the country will have the ability to test 2
million people in 3 months. Meeting that target depends on many
parts of the chain – who is collecting the sample, appropriate
collection and sending it to the labs.
“If you see that we test 1,000 samples in the day, that is
exactly the number of samples that we get; we are not going to
manufacture samples in order to meet some fictitious targets. The
target that we have set for ourselves is in terms of the capacity
that we have, but the actual throughput is dependent on the system,
the people collecting the sample from the right individuals.
“The laboratories are good to go but our challenge now is the
other systems to join us in this battle. However, remember that
testing is not a magic bullet; right now we need to accommodate the
people that come out positive, and show that we are carrying out
these non-pharmaceutical intervention, so that we reduce
transmission and the number of cases that we are seeing.
“Testing is important, but I see that there is an overt focus on
testing because of the numbers that were published; there are other
parts of the chain that needs to work for us to get on top of this
outbreak. If we keep focusing on one part of that chain we missed
the bigger picture.”