Fifty seven out of 96 public COVID-19 laboratories across the country are currently not performing, according to the latest epidemiological report by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
In total, the agency’s laboratory network performance audit report showed that a cumulative of 60 laboratories – public (57) and corporate (3) are not performing.
Out of the 57 public laboratories, 43 of them are testing but not reporting, 13 are not testing, and one laboratory is testing but not sequential. Of the three non-performing corporate laboratories, two are testing but their data are not accessible, while one is testing but not reporting.
The non-performing public laboratories therefore represent 59 per cent of the total number of public laboratories in the country testing for COVID-19.
The Nation gathered that there are over 150 laboratories testing for COVID-19 in Nigeria. These testing facilities are within the NCDC laboratory network. 96 of these laboratories are public, 83 are private and 6 are corporate.
According to the NCDC, as of August 28, 2022, a total of 5,536,089 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, with 3,929,754 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 1,607,910 rapid diagnostic test (RDT) tests done
Furthermore, in two weeks (between August 15 and 28, 2022), COVID-19 tests dropped from 25,711 to 20,643, representing a 19.7 per cent drop in testing rate across the country.
The Nation had reported that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country in February 2020, Lagos State, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Rivers State have tested the highest number of samples – 1,360,624; 725,752; and 499,251 samples respectively. However, Kogi, Zamfara and Borno States have tested the lowest number of COVID-19 samples – 19,157; 19,177 and 32,187 samples respectively.
As of September 14, 2022, a total of 264,744 persons have been infected with COVID-19, 257,909 have recovered, and 3,155 have sadly lost their lives.
Globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of September 15, 2022, there have been 607,745,726 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,498,747 deaths reported.
In response to the pandemic, the NCDC explained that it continues to monitor global COVID-19 trends, activated multi-sectoral Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), deployed 62 Rapid Response Teams to states, carry out surveillance and risk communication, and continue to track and collate data from states for strategic coordination, among other response activities.