By So Far, Nigeria Has Conducted 48,544 COVID-19 Tests; South Africa 564,370 tests; Ghana, 193,705; Cameroun, 161, 882
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said it had carried out 48, 544 COVID-19 tests nationwide in its report made available to BlackBox Nigeria on Wednesday.
In an independent finding, BlackBox Nigeria found out that as of May 25, 2020, Africa has recorded a total of 107,747 confirmed cases and 3,257 deaths, and of the total 1.5 million COVID-19 tests so far conducted in the continent.
Of this figure Nigeria conducted a total of 48,544 tests, representing 2 percent of the total, compared to South Africa that has carried out 564,370 tests (37.6 percent); Ghana, 193,705 (12.9 percent); Cameroun, 161, 882 (10.7 percent); Egypt, 135,000 (9 percent); Morocco, 133,561 (8 percent); Kenya, 76,692 (5 percent), and Ethiopia, 57,650 (3 percent).
The Nigerian figure was contained in a situation report on the pandemic published by NCDC on Wednesday.
BlackBox Nigeria further gathered that the centre currently has 28 laboratories that have the capacity of testing for the virus across the country.
A breakdown of the tests conducted so far per state showed that Lagos State, which is the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria, has the highest figure of 17,907.
The second on the list is the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with 6,136 while Kano State came third with 3, 965.
Kogi and Cross River states have the least number of tests with one and eight respectively.
The two states are the only states in the country that have not recorded any confirmed case of the virus.
Other states and the number of tests so far carried out are Oyo (2,420); Ogun (1,958); Edo (1,434); Jigawa (1,295); Kaduna (1,222); Katsina (1,216); Gombe (1,158); Kwara (1,078) and Borno (985).
Others are Bauchi (923); Rivers (750); Sokoto (618); Osun (569); Ondo (510); Delta (502), Plateau (476); Nasarawa (401); Kebbi (368); Ebonyi (330); Imo (317); Zamfara (276) and Ekiti (275).
The remaining states are Enugu (207); Niger (179); Anambra (172); Benue (156); Akwa Ibom (151); Abia (139); Taraba (139); Adamawa (107); Bayelsa (103); and Yobe (93).
Only on Tuesday, the NCDC activated two laboratories in Ogun and Katsina states bringing the number of laboratories with COVID-19 testing capacity nationwide to 28.
The two new laboratories are Afriglobal Medicare Lab, Ogun and Sahel Centre for Molecular Diagnostics and Research, Katsina.
