• Thursday, April 25, 2024
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BusinessDay

Coronavirus: Nigeria’s testing capacity now 1,500 per day – Minister

Vaccine production: Buhari asks Osagie for progress report

Osagie Ehanire, Nigeria’s minister of health on Thursday said Nigeria’s testing capacity for Covid-19 (Coronavirus) is now at 1,500 tests per day, which is an increase from 500 tests previously.

The minister said the increase is as a result of the expanded national case definition and addition of two new laboratories to test for Covid-19 in Ibadan and Ebonyi States.

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The minister had said that the Federal Government was further working to increase Nigeria’s testing capacity by increasing the number of laboratories to 13 before the end of April. Nigeria currently has seven laboratories.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), disclosing this through its official Twitter handle informed that it conducted the highest number of Covid-19 tests and recorded the highest number of positive cases yesterday, 1st April.

The centre also said it has deployed 15 rapid response teams to support 15 states, which it described as the largest deployment of resources ever for an outbreak in Nigeria.

As at 2nd April, Nigeria has 174 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 9 discharged cases and 2 deaths.