NIGERIA’s steadily abating Coronavirus infection rate is due mainly to the decline in testing by states, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on Monday.
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 Control told Nigerians not to celebrate the reduced positive cases being reported as a flattening of the COVID-19 curve.
Speaking during the PTF briefing on Monday in Abuja, the Head of Disease Surveillance for the NCDC, Elsie Ilori, said: “In the month of August, we had very low number of samples collected.
“In July, there were seven states with decreased samples collected, but unfortunately, in August, it increased to 32 states with decreased samples collection. In July, we had 13 states that actually collected over 1,000 samples. For August, no state met that target. That means we had zero states collecting over 1,000 samples.
“For the local government areas, in July we had 515 that collected samples and it decreased to 478 in August. We can appreciate the decrease in August.
“In August, states with the biggest increase are Abia (682), Sokoto (331), Bayelsa (314), Zamfara (55) and Yobe (12), but the numbers are not significant at all.
“In the same month, the biggest decrease in sample collection are Kano (19,108), Lagos (13,146), Oyo (4,902), Edo (3,327), and FCT (3,322). August sample collection has decreased drastically.”
