State governments have announced that they will resume and step up mass tests for COVID19 after the Omicron variant of the virus is detected in the country.
However, senior government officials in states like Cross River, Benue, Delta, and Akwa Ibom, who revealed this in separate interviews with Newsmen, cited funding as a major barrier to community testing.
They asked the federal government for help to fund community testing, particularly the operation of molecular laboratories. The states made the request when the World Health Organization announced that the new variant had spread.
Canada had detected the Omicron variant in two travelers who recently visited Nigeria on Sunday. On Tuesday, the American government put Nigeria, Egypt and Malawi on his list of travel bans of cases of the Omicron variant in three people with a history of travel to South Africa.
He said contact tracing had started on the cases, adding that individuals were isolated, but virologists expressed concern that the strain was already circulating in the country but could not be detected as most states were pending community testing be. River State said community testing began after the Omicron variant was discovered.
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State Health Commissioner Dr. Betta Edu reported this to one of our correspondents in Calabar. She said, “We have already collected samples from the ward again. and mass vaccination.
However, our challenges included the vaccination of vaccines and the high costs of running molecular laboratories, the state has already applied for support from the federal government in this regard. Professor Joseph Ngbea said the state had increased the testing rate.
The commissioner, who spoke to one of our correspondents over the phone, said the state committee of action on COVID 19 had developed a new strategy to test people after the new variant was discovered.