COVID-19: Many Nigerians not aware of available testing centres

A poll conducted by Daily Trust via Twitter has shown that many Nigerians are neither aware of available testing centres for COVID-19 nor have they been tested.

Nigeria, like other countries around the world, is also impacted by the second wave of the coronavirus as the number of confirmed cases peaked recently.

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As at Thursday morning, more than 80,000 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Nigeria so far, while 1,236 people have died from the virus and over 67,000 patients recovered.

It has been reported that Nigeria, with over 200 million inhabitants, has tested less than one percent of its population across the 69 accredited testing centres in the country.

The poll conducted by Daily Trust confirmed the low level of testing and lack of information on where the centres are located.

When Daily Trust asked: “Do you know the #COVID19 centres near you? Are they functional?” 49.4 percent of respondents said they were not aware of any testing centre around them while 34.4 percent said the centres available are not close to their locations.

While 7.6 percent of the respondents confirmed the availability of testing centres near them, 8.7 percent stated that the centres were not functional.

Have you had a #COVID19 test done before? What was your experience like? Please share details of your experience in the comments.
Thank you.

— Daily Trust (@daily_trust) December 22, 2020

Daily Trust also asked whether the respondents had done a COVID-19 test before and what the experience was like; 77.1 percent responded that they had not been tested for COVID-19 while 22.9 percent confirmed to have been tested.

Of 22.9 percent of respondents who confirmed to have been tested, 11.3 percent expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the testing exercise saying “It was a simple process”.

However, 8.7 respondents said they paid before the test was done while 2.9 percent said the testing exercise was tasking.

Do you know the #COVID19 centers near you? Are they functional?

— Daily Trust (@daily_trust) December 22, 2020

The Director-General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had in a recent interview with CNN acknowledged the slow turnaround time for testing and said the response was partly due to the challenge the country faced initially trying to repurpose its laboratories to test for the virus.

“We recognise that improving access to testing for COVID-19 is a major priority.

“We will continue to work closely with other stakeholders and partners to ensure that Nigerians can be tested in a timely manner that will also contribute to the control of this outbreak,” he said.