Covid-19: Despite N1bn to states, FG laments only four states reached 1 percent test target

The federal government on Thursday lamented that despite N1 billion support to each states of the federation, only four states reached the 1 percent testing target for its population in the 36 states of the federal and the Federal Capital Territory.

The states that reached the 1 percent test target mark include: The federal Capital Territory with record of 3.56 percent target, Lagos 1.5 percent, Rivers1.2 percent and Plateau state with record of 1.4 percent.

Sani Aliyu, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force who gave this information at the bi-weekly briefing of the team also expressed concern that the country is grossly undertesting with its resultant effects on the community transmission in the various states of the federation.

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“Even though we’ve crossed the 1 million test for public sector,but there are states that have tested less than 500 since the pandemic started. This is an indicative that we’re still undertesting and it is reflecting on the number of persons going to the hospitals and what we’ve on the ground.”

According to the National Coordinator, the country’s health system is being overwhelmed and health workers stretched to limits, urging the public to support health workers in their tireless efforts and their commitments towards a secured Nigeria.

Speaking further on the issue of fake results, the National Coordinator said the every report presented at the Airport must have the ‘QR’ code to ascertain the tests validity.

“Check with the Airline and the Embassies of the country you’re travelling to and not with touts to ascertain their requirements. If you do need a tests, do not buy a result, it is criminal,” Aliyu insists.

He said: “By next week, we would fix a date at which if you need a test, you’ve to go to the travel portal, enter your details, print out the QR code for the tests, and pay to the accredited laboratories. If the results come out it would reflect in the QR code. This will help us to check the validity.”

He informed that within few days, the PTF would make sure that every result presented at the Airport, has ‘QR code’ that matches the number we have in the portal, stating that the initiative would help the government track validity of results and check fake results.