Covid-19: Seven Nigerian States halt infection test

Agency Report

 

About 18 months after Nigeria recorded the index case of the deadly coronavirus, only 1.4 per cent of the nation’s population have been tested despite the third wave of the disease propelled by the highly infectious Delta strain.

 

This is as data obtained on Sunday from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control revealed that seven states out of the 36 states of the federation had stopped testing since September 1, 2021.

 

The data from the NCDC also revealed that 110 deaths were reported between September 1 and September 11, 2021.

 

The NCDC revealed on its website that 735,573 tests were conducted between January 10 and April 11.

 

But between April 11 and July 11, a total of 521,738 were conducted, representing a reduction of 213,835 (29.08 per cent).

 

Between July 11 and September 11, a total of 505,239 tests were also conducted.

 

As of January 10, a total of 1,121,484 COVID-19 tests had been conducted in the country, while 1,857,057 tests had been conducted as of April 11.

 

While 1,857,057 were conducted as of April 11, the figure rose to 2,378,795 as of July 11.

 

The total count as of September 11 stood at 2,884,034, signifying that only 1.45 per cent of the population have been tested.

 

States that have been sending updates regularly include Lagos, Federal Capital Territory, Rivers, Kaduna, Plateau, Oyo, Edo, Ogun, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Kano, Kwara, Delta, Osun, Enugu, Nasarawa, Gombe, Katsina, Anambra, Abia and Imo.

 

Others are Ekiti, Bauchi, Benue, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Taraba, Niger, Jigawa and Cross River.

 

The seven states that have not sent any update in the past 10 days are Borno, Ebonyi, Sokoto, Kebbi, Yobe, Zamfara are Kogi.

 

It was learnt that no single COVID-19 infection had been reported in these states since July despite the rising number of cases. This may imply that the total number of cases recorded in Nigeria is far from reality.