Despite the rising cases of COVID19 in Kano State, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said that COVID-19 test laboratory centre in Kano has suspended operations.
THE DAILY VENDOR reports that it’s barely two weeks the NCDC activated COVID-19 test centre at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano and the facility has already run short of test kits and reagents
Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases Research, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Prof. Isah Abubakar in an interview on Wednesday said the centre had run out of test kits such as reagents.
Prof. Isa Abubakar who is also the Spokesman of AKTH since the emergence of the COVID-19 index case in Kano said the shortage was observed yesterday when the Centre tested 44 persons and the reagents were only enough for 40 tests as the results for the other four was invalid due to shortage of the reagents.
‘’Right now as I speak to you, the 4 others that the results were invalid yesterday have been sent to Abuja to complete the test and get results,” said the Centre Director.
Prof. Isah Abubakar explained that they have notified the NCDC headquarters in Abuja and expecting them to restock the centre.
A source at the centre told THE DAILY VENDOR that one of the staff in the laboratory also tested positive and that scared the others but that was not the reason for suspending operations. This shortage of the needed consumables could affect the case detection rate negatively and thereby increase the rate of community transmission of the disease which is now a global pandemic.
