COVID-19: Lab screens 30, 000 overseas travellers

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By Dennis Agbo

Nigeria Center for Disease Control, NCDC, accredited Coronavirus testing laboratory has screened over 30, 000 overseas travellers from Nigeria since the resumption of international travels after the Covid-19 global lockdown.

Managing Director of Safety Molecular Pathology Laboratories Enugu, Dr. Emmanuel Nna, made the disclosure, during the weekend following the inspection by the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, MLSCN, in Enugu.

Nna said that the lab was responsible for reduction in the amount being charged in Nigeria for testing of Covid-19 samples.

Test for Covid-19 was made compulsory for travelers outside Nigeria since the outbreak of the pandemic, last year, bringing about upsurge in tests for Coronavirus in Nigeria.

Nna said that but for the intervention of the laboratory, Nigerians would have been paying through their nose to get tested for Coronavirus, to enable them travel outside Nigeria or conduct any other business that required results of Covid-19 tests.

Nna alleged that his outfit was approached by some officials in the Health sector to increase the rate for testing of Covid-19, but that he resisted their pressures, bearing in mind the myriad of challenges in Nigeria’s health sector.

He however acknowledged that the cost for testing of Covid-19 was still very exorbitant in Nigeria.

“We have tested over 30,000 travellers from Nigeria for Covid-19 because we have the wherewithal in terms of equipment, infrastructure, scientists and researchers who work overboard to ensure that accurate results are produced from the laboratories in Nigeria.

“We are the only molecular laboratory in Enugu state and we don’t engage in racketeering with doctors, we don’t pay commissions like others prefer to engage in, we don’t engage quacks and we don’t collect bribes.

“Our laboratories are our own contribution to the development of Nigeria’s health sector; there are no quacks in our laboratories because everybody is licensed for the practice. IT (Industrial Attachment) students can only increase their knowledge but are not licensed to practice, particularly when such students are not Medical lab scientists. Our staffs are graduates of Medical lab Science and other science researchers,” Nna stated.

He noted that the company pays huge amounts of money in corporate tax, same as in the Inland Revenue, noting that such a reputable organization could not employ quacks in the outfits.

“We charge the lowest rate in tests for Covid-19 because we don’t see a reason why we should charge as high as others do. They approached us to make the testing rate higher but we said no, that we don’t see a reason for the exploitation and the NCDC had written to us a commendation,” Nna said.

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