Lagos Spends N800m To Conduct 16,000 COVID-19 Tests

The Lagos State Government has spent at least N800 million to conduct 16,000 COVID-19 tests in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi said this on Thursday, on Thursday, while briefing newsmen on COVID-19 weekly situation report, held in Press Centre, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja.

Abayomi, while responding to questions from the newsmen, said each COVID-19 test cost between N40,000 to N50,000, while 16,000 tests have been conducted so far fully all expenses paid by the state government.

According to him, “We have so far performed 16,000 COVID-19 tests in Lagos, which is much higher than anywhere else in Nigeria.

“We are planning to test up to about 1,000 people per day very soon in the next month or two we are going to be ramping up our capacity to test.

“For now the government is providing testing free of charge and the government pays about N40,000 to N50,000 per test.

“But as we ramp up our testing we are going to try and use some means of subsidy for the test, either through insurance or through some contributions from donors or from development partners to help us to subsidize the test.

“For now the state government is providing COVID-19 testing free of charge and all citizens who need to be tested for COVID-19 either because they are not feeling well or had a close contact can get it done free of charge at any of our COVID-19 testing sites on the four laboratories,” the commissioner said.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization gave a stark warning on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over, after 106,000 new cases were recorded worldwide over the past 24 hours – the most in a single day so far.

Speaking in Geneva, the WHO’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the virus was spreading in poorer countries, just as wealthier nations were emerging from lockdown.

“We still have a long way to go in this pandemic. We are very concerned about rising cases in low- and middle-income countries,” he said.

The infection rate has been growing rapidly in Latin America, with Brazil becoming the country with the third most confirmed cases after it surpassed the UK on Tuesday.

The WHO warning came as European countries introduced innovative measures to curb further outbreaks. Spain confirmed face masks will be compulsory in busy city streets, and Germany said swimming pools would reopen without changing facilities.