The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is set to deploy the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits in general and tertiary hospitals.
The RDTs typically give test result within a maximum 30 minutes, unlike the PCR machines that can take between 24 to 72 hours or more to diagnose COVID-19 samples.
This comes amid complaints amongst Nigerians about a prolonged delay in knowing their COVID-19 status through the PCR machines.
It said the decision to deploy RDTs in hospitals was predicated on the success recorded in using RDTs to test National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in their camps.
Director-General of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, represented by Director of Surveillance and Epidemiology, Mrs. Elsie Ilori, added: “Following the successful use of the RDT kits that were used during the NYSC camping, we also have plans to roll out the RDT in the hospitals, especially to the general and tertiary hospitals, to test health workers and patients in line with our guidelines.”
“Now we are having increasing infections among health workers. We are appealing to our health workers not to let their guards down and make sure that they adhere to the infection prevention and control measures to prevent themselves from getting infected.”
