Chinese Medical Team In Nigeria To Be Tested For COVID-19 Today

The 15 personnel of the Chinese medical team are to be tested on Thursday to ascertain their Coronavirus (COVID-19) status.

The medical professionals, with expertise in infectious disease, respiratory illness, intensive care, cardiology, neurology, general surgery and anesthesiology, were sent into seclusion on their arrival from China 14 days ago.

They have had several conferences with directors, experts and technical officers of the Ministry of Health, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and other relevant authorities from isolation.

Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who dropped the hint during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in Abuja, said: “I was reminded that the people who came from China had spent 14 days in quarantine and I ordered that the test be done.

“The COVID-19 test swabs are to be taken tomorrow and the test will be done to finalise if any of them has any infection.”

Concerning the news of halting of testing in Kano State as a result of little or no reagents in the laboratories, Ehanire said: “As for the testing in Kano, there was a report that they had reduced availability of reagents and they were supplied that.

“In addition to that, there was a temporary halt in activities because some of the work persons in the laboratory got infected and the laboratory had to be shut down for decontamination, which was just temporary.

“With regard to supplies of reagents, they had been replenished. They now have personal protective equipment (PPE) and reagents.

“The role of primary health care is very important in this exercise in the sense that now we are in the community transmission phase. We have passed that era when people used to think that the coronavirus infection was something for rich people who came from abroad.

“Now that it has gotten to the community transmission level, it is really down to the grassroots, and the role of the primary health care comes into play. It is very important for them to be able to do surveillance and raise the index of suspicion.

“We are doing targeted testing, and right now, cluster testing has been very helpful in being able to identify places; that’s why you see so many of them now being discovered in the Lagos area and also in Abuja.”