Incident Manager, Oyo State Emergency Operation Centre, Dr Taiwo Ladipo says that in a bid to increase testing for COVID-19, it is providing free testing using COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits that give result within an hour in six designated centres across the state.
Dr Ladipo said in the last 6 weeks, 8,700 tests had been done using the COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits that were initially deployed for use at the orientation camps and for testing medical students resuming back at the University College Hospital, Ibadan.
According to him, some of 150,000 COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits received in the state are currently being deployed into the community and individuals that come out positive will be followed up with a confirmatory test using the polymerase chain reaction test.
He stated: “So people need not think testing is difficult if they really need it. The six designated centres, including Idiogungun Primary Health care centre and State Hospital Oyo, is with the aim of increasing access to testing and fast track result.”
Dr Ladipo stated that the focus of Oyo State now is on surveillance at sentinel sites to monitor the infection trend, monitoring of test results of international travelers, mass screening exercise using COVID-19 rapid test kits, a vaccination campaign and routine response activities.
He, however, urged everyone to get set to be vaccinated during the next round of COVID-19 vaccination exercise in the state.
Speaking, Oyo state Diseases Surveillance Notification officer, Mrs Titilope Akinleye said some of the factors increasing the risk of COVID-19 resurgence include persistent public misconceptions and non-pharmaceutical preventive measures almost totally abandoned.
Others are poor awareness on who is a suspected case, refusal of COVID-19 testing opportunities, contacts and confirmed cases not isolating and confirmed cases refusing to advise on admission and isolation and unauthorised persons treating COVID-19 and COVID-like illnesses.
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