COVID-19: NCDC works hard to flatten curve, extends virus diagnosis labs to six, plans the 7th in Nigeria

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says it is working very hard to flatten the curve in Nigeria and has therefore extended its molecular laboratories with the capacity to detect Coronavirus Disease to six.

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of the NCDC, disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja, while giving an update on COVID-19 in the country.

Earlier Nigeria had set up five Molecular laboratories with this capacity.

The facilities are located in the NCDC’s National Reference Laboratory, Abuja; Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State; Redeemers University Nigeria, Ogun State; Lagos University Teaching Hospital; and Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Lagos.

Ihekweazu said this capacity had now been expanded to include the Virology Laboratory of the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

He said: “Currently, samples from cases that meet the case definition are collected by the State Epidemiology Team and transported through a defined process funded by NCDC, from the state to one of the testing laboratories.

“The inclusion of one more laboratory will increase the capacity to detect cases in the country.”

Ihekweazu further said the establishment of COVID-19 testing capacity in the laboratories was based on existing resources.

“The NCDC Team will be in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State to set up COVID-19 testing capacity in the existing molecular laboratory within the state,” he said.

He stated that each laboratory costs about N150 million to build and equip initially, and millions of naira to maintain functionality.

He disclosed that NCDC was keeping abreast of new technologies available and validated globally to support the scale up of testing capacity for COVID-19.

Ihekweazu added that each laboratory would continue to provide diagnostic support for a defined number of states in the country.

The NCDC boss said the laboratories were critical to reducing turnaround time between identifying a suspected case and confirmation.

He said: “Our strategy is to find cases quickly, isolate, follow up with contacts and treat these cases”.

The centre in its twitter handle said: “Tomorrow, we will be in Abakaliki to set up another lab as we quickly ramp up #COVID19 testing capacity in Nigeria