Nigeria is yet to test up to a million people for COVID-19, several months after announcing plans to do so, and nearly a year since the deadly virus arrived the country.
On April 28, the federal government announced its target of testing at least two million people within the next three months.
It planned to test 50,000 people in each state and the federal capital, Abuja.
As of December 29, the country had tested 937,712 samples, the Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, revealed.
Mr Mamora, who said this at the PTF national briefing on Tuesday in Abuja, said the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 will focus on vaccine procurement in the first quarter of 2021.
The minister said COVID-19 vaccine would be purchased from any available point of sale or country and would be subjected to the National Agency For Food and Drugs Administration and Control regulation.
According to Mr Mamora, total number of samples of people tested for COVID-19 in the country is 937,712, number of confirmed cases, 84,811, active cases, 12,190, discharged till date, 71,357 and number of deaths till date, stands at 1,264.
He said the case fatality equals 1.49 per cent.
Speaking on the case management strengthening activities in the country, Mr Mamora said the fatality rate at 1.49 per cent in spite of increasing number of active cases and morbidity were evidence of scaled up activity and quality of care at the isolation centres.
“All the federal tertiary hospitals that obviously run levels 2 & 3 isolation centres have been directed to improve/scale up Infection Prevention and Control measures in order to improve on treatment outcomes and enhance safety of the frontline health personnel.
“This is coming at the backdrop of the recent upsurge in the affected health workers and the unfortunate demise of some.
”The case management team has continued to advocate the presence of psychosocial support for both patients and health workers.
”This is necessary because of the fatigue and consequential apathy associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
