The Federal and State Governments must increase their testing capacity in order to have a full picture of the country’s COVID-19 pandemic, the coalition of labour and civil society groups working on the impact of COVID-19 across Nigeria said on Sunday.
The group, Alliance for Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond, (ASCAB) led by prominent lawyer and human rights activists, Mr Femi Falana said without mass and effective testing of Nigerians, the daily figures released by the National Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC) would fall short of representing the actual extent of the outbreak. Nigeria currently has testing capacity for 1,500 people, which is one of the lowest per average in the world.
“Nigeria is far from knowing her real corona virus pandemic status. The total number of Nigerians confirmed positive as at last week was about 4,300. This does not appear to reflect the reality given the poor public access to testing. It is unfortunate that Nigerian testing capacity is lower than what is obtainable in Egypt, Ghana and South Africa” ASCAB said in a statement signed by the group’s Secretary for Publicity, Mr Adewale Adeoye.
The group said the various authorities are have effectively enforced the lockdown while ij many cases government officials break the no-travel and social distancing rules.
read more here: https://orientalnewsng.com/falana-seeks-improved-covid-19-testing-capacity/
