The director of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu has said that the federal government might resort to treating coronavirus disease patients at home due to shortage of bed spaces at the isolation centres.
Ihekweazu who stated this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on yesterday said there was bed spaces shortage especially in Lagos and partly in Abuja and Kano where cases have increased daily.
“Across the country we have about 3,500 bed spaces identified and available for COVID-19. But in Lagos, we are already struggling.
“We are going to work with that to keep trying and making more spaces available but ultimately we might have to change our strategy a little bit, considering home care in certain circumstances where the person is able to provide a room where he or she can be managed sufficiently.
“Secondly, we will also have to support their care by enabling healthcare workers, who would go and treat them. Because of the realities we face, we might have to adjust our strategy in the next few days or weeks.”
“We will always be honest with Nigerians, we are struggling at the moment, we might have to adapt our strategy because of the realities we face over the next few days and weeks.
“As we do that we will make that clear to Nigerians. Our policy hasn’t changed but the pressure is there and it might have to change in the next few days,” he said.
He also said the federal government was aware of the pressure for the use of the rapid diagnostic test, but that the technology would not produce accurate results as against what obtains with molecular laboratory testing.
“My responsibility is to make sure every result we get is accurate, and that is what we are doing at the moment,” he said.
He explained that instead of waiting for people to call or come for tests, officials were being deployed the neighbourhoods in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja to take samples from people with symptoms for testing.
He also reacted to the issue of some states buying test kits themselves and using other faster devices for testing in their areas.
Ihekweazu said NCDC would not stop any state from doing so, but that the centre would insist on working with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) as far as the laboratory testing is concerned.
He cautioned that any state using test kits not endorsed by WHO or NCDC may be doing so at the risk to the lives of their people.
