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.
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“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.”
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK