The Director-General of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu said in a statement that NCDC does not have a problem of testing for COVID-19, but rather, the issue they are facing is getting the samples across to labs.
The Director-General of NCDC during the daily Presidential Task Force briefing in Abuja on the 15th of April made the above statement and also added that;
“The bottleneck now is in getting the samples from the right people. We are now scaling up sample collection.
We are helping Lagos State to set up sample collection facilities in 20 health facilities in the state.
We want to make it easier for people who need to give samples to do so.
Our call center capacity has also improved; so, please call us if you need to.
That is why we focus on Lagos and the FCT because of the efforts they are making to get more people tested.”
Mr. Ihekweazu also explained that Nigerians should be productive as NCDC buys all their equipment from local manufacturers and also, he said Nigerians should not in any way stigmatize the people infected with the virus.
He said while giving update on the COVID-19;
“In every crisis, there is an opportunity; there is an opportunity for you, if you are a local manufacturer, producing in line with regulatory standards.
Everything we buy now in NCDC is from local manufacturers
It could be any of us, none of us is immune to it, as it is a new disease.”
