The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has disclosed
that the low number of the COVID-19 cases in the country is due to the lesser
amount of samples collected across the states.
Chikwe Ihekweazu, NCDC Director-General, stated this during
the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja on Thursday.
Ihekweazu, who was represented by Mrs. Elsie Ilori, NCDC Head
of Surveillance and Epidemiology Department, stated 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 we have had some of our confirmed cases have been very low compared to what we’ll be having before, but this isn’t because the numbers are getting low but because we are 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 should not have been.
“So we are working with the states to quickly address this
so that we do not have this kind of situation again,” he said.
According to Ihekweazu, we sometimes know when we look at
stigmatization, people say they do not want to go to testing sites because
they’ll be stigmatized.
“But I mean, this isn’t something to be ashamed of, we have
just had an example amongst us, it can happen to anybody.
So, please let us come out and be tested.”
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