Enugu lab on COVID-19 screens over 30,000 overseas travellers

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) accredited coronavirus testing laboratory, Safety Molecular Pathology Laboratories, Enugu, has screened over 30,000 overseas travellers from Nigeria since resumption of international travels after COVID-19 global lockdown.

Managing Director of the Laboratory, Dr. Emmanuel Nna, disclosed this during an inspection by the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) in Enugu.

Nna said that the lab was responsible for reduction in the amount being charged in Nigeria for testing of COVID-19 samples. He said that if not for the intervention of the laboratory, Nigerians would have been paying through their nose to get tested for coronavirus to enable them travel outside Nigeria or conduct any other business that required results of COVID-19 tests.

Nna alleged that his outfit was approached by some officials in the health sector to increase the rate for testing of COVID-19, but that he resisted their pressures, bearing in mind the myriad of challenges in Nigeria’s health sector. He, however, lamented that the cost for testing of COVID-19 was still very exorbitant in Nigeria.

“We charge the lowest rate for COVID-19 tests because we don’t see a reason why we should charge as high as others do. They approached us to make the testing rate higher but we said no, that we don’t see a reason for the exploitation and the NCDC had written to us a commendation,” Nna said.