The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reiterated its confidence in the test results conducted at the Molecular Laboratory at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo.
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of NCDC, made the assertion while fielding questions at the daily media briefing hosted by the Presidential Taskforce Force (PTF) on COVID-19 on Thursday in Abuja.
Ihekweazu spoke against the backdrop of a statement from the Akwa Ibom Government refuting the number of persons currently with COVID-19 in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the laboratory at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital is one of the laboratories in Nigeria designated to diagnose COVID-19.
Others include the NCDC National Reference Laboratory; Virology Laboratory of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos; Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos; and African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases.
They are the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan and the Virology Laboratory of Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi. They are all in the NCDC Molecular laboratory network.
According to Ihekweazu, the Molecular Laboratory at Irrua is one of the oldest in the country and has experienced personnel who are competent.
However, the NCDC director-general said that people suspected or proven to have COVID-19 were usually retested after some days or periodically, saying that was the only way to know if they still have the virus or were free from it.
He urged government at all levels to unanimously collaborate in the fight against the pandemic.
Ihekweazu assured that the government and all agencies in the fight to curb the spread of COVID-19 would support all the states in the country to prevent or reduce the spread of the disease.
“I want to let all the states know that we are here for you, to support you.
“But, I also want you to know that Mr President has called on us to have one response across the country, a single coordinated response led by the PTF on COVID-19,” he said.
Earlier, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that the spike in fake news was distracting the Federal Government’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mohammed also debunked the trending news in the social media that the equipment and aid that Nigeria received from the Jack Ma Foundation in China were infected with the COVID-19 virus.
