The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it will expand its testing capacity for COVID-19 from six laboratories to 13 in the next three weeks.
NCDC, through its verified Twitter account on Sunday, noted that the new laboratories would be in Abakaliki, Maiduguri, Kano, Sokoto, Port-Harcourt, Jos and Kaduna.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that presently, NCDC has two laboratories in Lagos, while Abuja, Ibadan, Osun and Edo have one respectively.
With increasing cases of COVID-19 in the country, the need for additional facilities to conduct the test has become necessary to avoid losing probable cases to the community.
To cope with the insufficient laboratory for COVID-19 test, some Nigerians had embraced the use of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kit for COVID-19 to know their health status.
NCDC, however, warned that Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kit for COVID-19 has not been validated, adding that the risk of false result was high with the kit.
“We are aware of validation studies going on. Until these are completed, we cannot procure RDTs, because we do not know if they work,” it said.
NAN reports that as at 10:40p.m of March 28, there are 97 confirmed cases and one death in Nigeria.
Lagos has 59 cases, Abuja- 16; Oyo- seven; Ogun- three; Enugu, Edo, Bauchi and Osun has two cases each, while Ekiti, Rivers, Benue and Kaduna has one case respectively.