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Doris Obinna
Lagos State has set up sampling stations in 20 local government areas where citizens that fit the case definition of COVID-19 can visit and drop their samples for testing.
Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said yesterday, that the strategy was geared towards bringing COVID-19 testing opportunity closer to the people.
He said the idea is aimed at taking the work strain off health workers that visit several local government for case search and sample collection.
According to him, the new arrangement would provide the opportunity for people at local councils with symptoms of COVID-19 to present themselves early for testing.
“We have decentralised the locations where you can have yourself submitted for sampling. So what we have done is to move sampling stations to the local governments. And if you feel that you have any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, you can present yourself to this decentralised sampling stations. They are not testing stations, but sampling stations,and If you meet the criteria for testing, you will be able to receive the counsel of the staff and your sample will be taken.
“We are not just testing anybody, there is a criteria for testing; you either must have COVID-19 symptoms to meet the case definition or be in close contact with somebody that have been confirmed with COVID-19. Your samples would be taken and it would then be sent to one of our accredited testing facilities and those facilities will then perform the tests,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prof. Abayomi, has said the state has no policy against release of corpses of persons who tested positive for COVID-19 for burial.
On April 3, 2020, at a NAN forum in Abuja, Lai Mohammed, minister of information, had specifically said COVID-19 corpses cannot be claimed for burial.
However, in a response to a question on why the body of Abba Kyari, the late chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, was moved from Lagos to Abuja for burial, Abayomi said there was no policy against releasing such corpses for burial, save for a protocol which has to be followed before the corpse is released to the family.
“There is no policy against the release of the deceased with COVID-19 in terms of release for burial. If you demise from any condition, there’s protocol to manage every scenario,” he said.
