Shortage of reagents delaying COVID-19 tests in Oyo State, says Makinde

• Researchers urge deployment of a task force to urban slums
• South-South indigenes in Lagos laud Sanwo-Olu for palliatives

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State yesterday said that shortage of reagents had been delaying the processing of Coronavirus tests.

Makinde said this had caused a backlog of 300 out of 775 samples collected.

The governor, who revealed this via his official Twitter handle, apologised to those waiting for the test results and appealed to them to exercise patience while the state government ramped up efforts to source for the chemical required for the process.

“Due to shortage of reagents required to process COVID-19 tests, we currently have a number of pending results. Of the 775 samples collected so far, 300 are awaiting results.

“We are already in the process of acquiring more reagents in the shortest possible time to enable us to clear the backlog. We appeal for patience from those awaiting results,” he tweeted.

“Details of the schedule will be provided in due course.

“We are grateful to IHS Towers for the donation of an ambulance to the state government.”

In another development, University of Ibadan (UI) Urban Health Research Team yesterday urged Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State and his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde, to deploy COVID-19 task force teams to urban slums in their states to prevent community transmission of Coronavirus.

Head of the team, Prof. Akinyinka Omigbodun, stated this in a statement in Ibadan yesterday.

The health experts, who carried out stakeholder engagements in Bariga, Idi-Ikan and Sasha slum communities in Lagos and Oyo states, said the slum communities in question displayed poor adherence to advisories on prevention issued by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The team also urged the two states to consider creating access points for COVID-19 testing in the slum communities.

Omigbodun urged the governors to engage in massive sensitisation in these and other slum communities, as well as distributing face-masks and hand sanitisers free of charge to the communities.

In another development, indigenes of the South-South geo-political zone, comprising Delta, Rivers, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa states resident in Lagos, under the leadership of Otunba Isaac Emiyede, have thanked Sanwo-Olu for the COVID-19 palliatives he gave to their people to cushion the effect of the lockdown.

“We also appreciate the magnanimity and effort of the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Sam Egube, for standing up for the South-South people at this crucial time,” Emiyede, an engineer, said in a statement.

He equally thanked Mr. Tunde Ekpekurede, Otunba Napoleon, Hon Fregene and other members of the palliatives distribution team “for ensuring that our people all over Lagos State received the palliatives adequately.”