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Health News of Wednesday, 18 March 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

NCDC reveals persons eligible for COVID-19 testing

Coronavirus (for illustration) Coronavirus (for illustration)

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has commenced a national orientation for citizens over the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria.

Taking to Twitter to explain who can be tested by the virus, the NCDC said anyone who meets the "national case definition" for COVID19 would be tested at no cost in any of its five molecular laboratories with testing capacity in-country.

The national case definition of the virus is in three perspectives.

The three perspectives refer to the suspected case, probable case, and confirmed case.

The suspected case refers to any person with fever, cough or difficulty in breathing who within 14 days before the onset of illness had traveled to a high-risk country with widespread community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 or has been exposed to persons or facilities with the virus.

A probable case is anyone whose testing for COVID-19 is indeterminate or whose testing was positive on a pan-coronavirus assay.

A confirmed case, on the other hand, is any person with laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection with or without signs and symptoms.

More details could be found here regarding the guidelines: http://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/resource/guideline/NCDC_COVID-19%20Case%20Definition%20Version%204.pdf

The agency also revealed four labs with the capacity to test for the virus. They are located in FCT, Lagos, Edo and Osun States.