The test centre for COVID-19 in Abia State will next week commence operation following the receipt of one of the two GeneXpert equipment ordered by the Ikpeazu administration in April 2020 from the United States of America.
The State Commssioner for Health, Dr Joe Osuji revealed this on Friday in interaction with newsmen.
He said the state government and the NCDC has concluded plans to test run another GenXpert diagnostic equipment located in the isolation center at Amachara to commence analyzing samples from the equipment next week next week.
Plans are also underway to set up a test centre in Aba in coming days.
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According to the Commissioner, two of the testing equipment owned by the state government will be deployed in Abia State Specialist Hospital & Diagnostic Center, Umuahia, while the new GenXpert machine from the United States of America’s will be deployed at Aba to cater for the commercial city and environs.
He explained that the main advantage of the GeneXpert equipment is that it does not need an extractor thereby reducing the chances of sample contamination and as well reduce exposure of laboratory personnel to infection. He informed that the state partnered with NCDC to train the laboratory scientists that will operate the facilities.
Dr. Osuji attributed the delay in delivery of the health equipment to the acute shortage of the item due to excess demand arising from the pandemic all over the world, especially for the type of equipment the state government wanted as well as the border closure and restricted flights during this time made it difficult to take delivery earlier.
Dr Osuji informed that the uptick in number of confirmed cases in the state is as a result of the increased number of samples collected and sent for screening by the rapid response team and explained that while the state has resources to manage the patients it is desirable to continue with aggressive case search and contact tracing as part of the plan to defeat the virus in the state.
Similarly, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Friday, donated one PCR machine to the state which the state Government is also deploying at the Amachara facility to boost the testing capacity of the state.
