Kogi State government has dismissed the notion that it’s not testing enough to justify the claim that the state is free of Covid-19.
It claimed that it has bought 5,000 test kits to show its committment to the fight against Covid-19.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, in it’s situation report on Covid-19 response across states published on Tuesday said Kogi had submitted only one sample, since the outbreak of the virus in Nigeria.
The sample returned negative.
The NCDC’s report comes few days after the state government said it tested 111 persons without the supervision of the health agency.
Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, had claimed that the testing kits procured by the state were used to conduct the tests and that those tested were picked randomly.
In a statement on Wednesday in Lokoja, the commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Haruna reiterated that the state government is committed to the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, “irrespective of reservations we may have over its handling in Nigeria”.
“It is important that we dismiss the notion that we are not inclined towards testing for the virus. What then will be the use of procuring over 5000 test kits worth several tens of million of naira,” he queried.
Nigeria recorded its index case of Covid-19 in February, 2020.
Thirty-four states of the federation and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory have been hit hard by the virus, with Lagos state having the highest figures of confirmed cases and fatalities.
However Kogi and Cross Rivers are yet to record any confirmed case.
