The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has rated very high the newly opened molecular diagnostic laboratory constructed by the Akwa Ibom state government for running of coronavirus tests.
The diagnostic laboratory is within the disease control unit of the 300 bed capacity isolation centre recently built by Udom Emmanuel, the governor, at Methodist Hospital, Ituk Mbang.
The state’s molecular diagnostic laboratory was given approval to run coronavirus tests by the NCDC on Monday.
The approval followed a validation visit to the Akwa Ibom isolation centre by NCDC team led by Bamidele Oluwafemi.
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The NCDC team commended the state government for single-handedly building the isolation centre with the inbuilt laboratory with category 3 PCR machine without the support of the federal government.
The team described the isolation centre as one of the best in the country, noting that everything at the centre was up to the expected standard of NCDC.
Oluwafemi, leader of the NCDC team, announced that the Polymerase Claim Reaction (PCR) Laboratory at the Ituk Mbang 300-bed capacity isolation centre has been fully activated.
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During the validation visit, the NCDC team trained personnel on how to carry out COVID-19 test and interpret results at the Akwa Ibom isolation centre.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Ekuwem, chairman of COVID-19 management committee and secretary to the state government, has expressed appreciation to the NCDC for activating and approving the PCR lab as well as adjudging the lab and isolation centre as one of the bests in the country.
Ekuwem thanked the governor for the “huge investment” in the health sector of the state as exemplified in the upgrading of health care facilities across the state.
Dominic Ukpong, commissioner for health, said with the approval of the PCR laboratory in the state, the challenged faced in transporting samples to Edo state has been solved.
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