NCDC to start announcing number of tests per week

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Thursday said it will, in a weekly address, announce the number of coronavirus tests

The commission director general Chikwe Ihekweazu said this during the ongoing the presidential task force on COVID-19 regular press briefing.

“Every Friday by 6pm, we will announce the number of tests we have done,” Ihekweazu.

Critics have accused the NCDC of hiding the figures due to the country’s low testing capacity. Many of the debaters say the NCDC is not testing people enough for coronavirus, hence, it is hiding the figures to shun backlash.

However, NCDC last week said it has tested 5000 persons for the virus while the presidential task force on COVID_19 said 3000 persons. The figures is yet to be reconciled by the two teams.

So far, Nigeria has recorded 407 cases of the coronavirus with 12 deaths. The country witnessed a spike in the number of daily cases in the last two days.

Experts relate the spike to the increase in the daily number of tests carried out in Lagos.

In Lagos, the NCDC team has begun a house-to-house testing. According to the state health commissioner Akin Abayomi, the team tested 118,000 households in the first two days the exercise started.