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As part of efforts to take advantage of the two-week lockdown extension ordered by the President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Government plans to conduct 4,000 coronavirus tests every day.
The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control(NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, who disclosed this on Tuesday during a briefing of the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus in Abuja, said 2,000 tests would be conducted in Lagos, 1,000 in Abuja and 1,000 in other parts of the country.
The Director General recalled that the President, in his speech on Monday, said the public health response to coronavirus was dependent on ability to detect, test and admit cases as well as trace all contacts.
He said Nigeria had increased its laboratories for testing to 12, adding that the government would ensure every state had a laboratory.
Speaking, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said isolation centres would be established at the country’s land borders.
Buhari had on Monday extended the 14 days lockdown imposed on the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun states on March 29 by another two weeks.