Why Nigeria's COVID-19 cases dropped - NCDC explains
- The NCDC has explained why Covid-19 cases in the country have dropped
- Chikwe Ihekweazu, the DG of the agency, said the cases dropped because states are not doing enough testing
- Ihekweazu said it is important every local government have a sample collection site in the country to improve the testing capacity
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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has explained the reason behind the low number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country in recent times.
According to the director-general of the NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, the lesser number of Covid-19 cases is due to a lesser number of samples collected across the states, Daily Trust reports.
Legit.ng gathers that Ihekweazu said this on Thursday, August 13, in Abuja during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing.
Source: Twitter
Ihekweazu was represented at the briefing by the NCDC Head of Surveillance and Epidemiology Department, Elsie Ilori.
The NCDC DG explained that the testing labs were underutilized because the states were not collecting enough samples for the laboratory to test.
“As mentioned earlier, since the Sallah break, our confirmed cases have been very low compared to what we were having before but this is not because the numbers are getting low but because we’re not collecting enough samples.
“If you notice, the number of samples collected during Salah was very low and we believe it was because of the festival season some labs even went on break, it shouldn’t have been.
“So we’re working with the states to quickly address this so that we do not have this kind of situation again,” he said.
The DG explained that the agency wants every local government to have a sample collection site in the country to improve the testing capacity.
The NCDC chief also urged the states to prioritize testing and want Nigerians to present themselves for testing.
Ihekweazu also encouraged the use of face masks to avoid a spike in the Covid-19 cases in the country.
“I want to encourage us to use our mask properly and join us in the #MaskOn9ja so that we can fight this COVID-19,” he said.
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Meanwhile, the federal government, on Wednesday, August 12, said Nigeria had not placed an order for any vaccines from Russia.
The government made the clarification following reports that about 20 countries had ordered billions of the Russian vaccine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the approval of the coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use on Tuesday, August 11.
Also on coronavirus, the Oyo state government said it would consolidate on its self-policing strategy of containing the spread of COVID-19 by adopting another strategy tagged: “name and shame.”
Community reporting would consolidate on the government's strategy of containing the spread of COVID-19 through the use of Geographical Information System (GIS).
The chairperson, Oyo state COVID-19 decontamination and containment committee, Prof Olanike Adeyemo, disclosed this at the containment stakeholders’ town hall meeting held at the Western Hall, Agodi Secretariat, Ibadan, on Thursday, August 13.
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