*Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, NCDC Boss making a presentation at the daily press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19
As part of the measures to stop the spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Nigeria, the Federal Government has said it will take advantage of two-week lockdown extension ordered by the President, Muhammadu Buhari to conduct 4,000 COVID-19 tests every day.
Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Director- General (DG) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), who disclosed this on Tuesday during a briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, said 2,000 tests would be conducted in Lagos, 1,000 in Abuja and 1,000 in other parts of the country. In the same vein, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said isolation centres would be established at the country’s land borders.
Buhari had on Monday extended the 14 days lockdown he ordered in the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun States on March 29 by another two weeks. The DG on Tuesday recalled that the President, in his speech on Monday, said the public health response to COVID-19 was dependent on ability to detect, test and admit cases as well as trace all contacts. Ihekweazu said Nigeria had increased its laboratories for testing COVID-19 to 12, adding that the government would ensure every state had a lab.
