The Federal Government has expressed fear that there might be a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases as business and schools begin to reopen and travels also begin to pick up.
The alarm was raised by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire while speaking at the weekly COVID-19 media briefing yesterday in Abuja.
According to the minister, “The number of active cases has continued to drop as we revise our discharge criteria in line with new knowledge of the disease, even as we continue to strengthen our case management pillar to provide effective and efficient quality care to all those who test positive whether they are in our facilities or home care.
“As business and schools begin to open and as travels begin to pick up, we fear that we may have a surge in the number of cases unless we scale up surveillance and review our response plan to integrate new ways to deal with the pandemic.
“I shall again renew my appeal to state government to continue to ensure that we step up case findings, sample collection and testing. It is only by testing that we can identify those with the infection for isolation and treatment.
“This is the only way we can truly halt the spread of the disease and confirm that we have actually contained the pandemic.”
The minister also announced the development of a Nigeria made molecular test kit for Covid-19.
“In line with this, the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research has developed a molecular test for COVID-19 that can give results in less than 40 minutes. It is the SARS-COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay (SIMA) which can be performed by low skilled personnel with minimum training.
“This test which is ten times cheaper, than the PCR can be deployed for point of care detection and surveillance. The technique which was developed by Dr. Chika Onwuamah will be deployed for use as soon as it is validated by the relevant agencies of the Ministry for specificity and Sensitivity,” he said
