The director general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has cautioned Nigerians against stigmatizing persons who test positive for Covid-19.
Speaking at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja on Thursday, the director general of the agency, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu urged Nigerian disparage people infected with Covid-19 saying such act is capable of derailing efforts of the government to drastically curtail the disease.
“If indeed Nigerians are desirous of getting over the present situation and allowing businesses to return to normalcy, then everyone will have play their role in encouraging and supporting persons with proven symptoms to go and get tested,” he said.
Concerning the rate of testing for the virus, Ihekweazu said NCDC had so far tested 7,000 persons in the country since the outbreak.
He said the centre will be issuing weekly totals every Friday evening to keep Nigerians abreast of the progress made to test all suspected cases of Covid-19 infection and their contacts.
Ihekweazu also said the centre would improve on the speed and testing capacity in the next few days
Furthermore, he said two more laboratories in Borno and Sokoto will be activated to bring the total number of the facilities to 15 across the country.
Speaking on the new policy on use of face mask, Ihekweazu said going forward government will ensure that people wear face masks for protection while at public places like the market where the practice of social distancing may not be practicable.
As of the time of the briefing, there were 407 confirmed cases of the disease in Nigeria with 99 persons discharged from treatment centres after testing negative twice and 12 deaths recorded.
