Kano State has suspended COVID-19 testing despite having the third-highest figure of the disease in Nigeria.
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The testing for the coronavirus was suspended at the Kano test centre following the unavailability of materials.
A member of Kano COVID-19 taskforce, Sadiq Isah, revealed that testing was suspended in Kano centre because they lack some basic needs in the centre.
Isah said that henceforth, all suspected cases would be transported to Abuja for testing before announcing the result.
The official said they have notified the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, about the development.
He said Kano would resume testing for coronavirus as soon as all the needed materials are available in the centre.
Isah explained that suspending the coronavirus test in Kano was a great setback in the fight against the spread of the disease in the state, which accounts for almost 10 per cent of the total 782 coronavirus cases in Nigeria and whose figure has risen daily for the past week.
The COVID-19 testing centre, situated at the Malam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, hosts many Northern states’ suspected cases.
The challenge faced in Kano exemplifies the challenge of testing Nigeria has faced since the first case of the disease was detected in the country in February.
Nigeria has tested less than 15,000 people so far, across the country, less than a quarter of the number tested in less populated African countries such as Ghana and South Africa.
Nigeria, on Tuesday, recorded its highest daily figure since its first COVID-19 case in February as 117 cases were reported by the NCDC.
With the latest update, the total tally of infected people in the country rose to 782 from 665 reported on Monday evening.
The public health agency in a tweet Tuesday night said that new cases were reported in eight states. These are Lagos, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kano, Katsina, Ogun, Rivers, Bauchi and Borno states.
All the cases were reported in states with existing cases.
A breakdown of the latest update shows that 59 of the new cases were reported in Lagos, 29 in the FCT, 14 in Kano, six in Borno, four in Katsina, three in Ogun, and one each in Rivers and Bauchi.