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Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu NCDC chief
The Director-General of the commission, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this on Friday, during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on the COVID-19 in Abuja.
He, however, admitted that the fight against the pandemic has been limited by funds and infrastructure and the biggest limitation – human resources.
“We’re not just limited by funds or infrastructure, but the biggest limitation is the human resources, the people that have already been trained in molecular diagnostics testing,” Ihekewazu said.
“This isn’t something that you can pick volunteers up and ask them to start testing.
“It’s a very complicated process and the people doing this, are the same people doing the actual testing, so we have to find a balance between building capacity, increasing throughput and actually assuring testing”.
According to him, global bodies have insisted on getting people tested as fast as possible but while speed is important, safety is also important and there has to be a balance of both.
The NCDC boss also noted that the realities around the world are not the same and for Nigeria, the President has asked officials to only stick to what works for the country.
“Getting more people tested is something that is being talked about globally and you would all have been following this conversation. And it’s exactly what we have been trying to do – to improve our capacity to test.
“But we must do so safely and we must make sure that in the effort to do it quickly, we maintain the due diligence and make sure that every test that we provide to every Nigeria is authentic. When it’s negative, it’s negative. When it’s positive, it’s positive.
“The realities around the world are not the same and Mr President has asked us not to look east or west but to find the right solutions considering the circumstances in our country,”.
