With 9,000 COVID-19 tests, Nigeria’s capacity below that of 20 African countries

Although Nigeria’s COVID-19 testing capacity has improved, it is not good enough when compared to other countries in Africa and across the world.

With 8,934 tests conducted at the end of Tuesday, Africa’s most populous nation has tested only 0.004 percent of its citizens for COVID-19, lagging behind at least 20 countries on the continent.

However, an analysis of data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) shows that with daily tests of about 350 in recent days, Nigeria’s testing capacity has improved over the past few weeks.

Nigeria now has 13 molecular laboratories with the capacity to test for COVID-19, seven of which were created in the last one month. Also, a number of states have established more testing centres to increase access.

BUT NIGERIA STILL RANKS POORLY AMONG AFRICAN COUNTRIES

A study of the COVID-19 testing trend across Africa shows that Nigeria is not among the top 20 countries that have tested the highest percentage of their population.

Djibouti, which tops that chart of Africa’s best performers, has carried out 8,955 tests, which translates to 0.91 percentage of its 974,000 residents.

This means that no African country has tested up to one percent of its population, a far cry compared to what is obtainable globally: Iceland, for instance, has tested 13 percent of its population, while the United Arab Emirates has tested 8.1 percentage of its residents.

Countries on the continent that have tested higher percentage of their population more than Nigeria are:

• Mauritius: 0.81 percent
• Mayotte: 0.75 percent
• Ghana: 0.23 percent
• South Africa: 0.21 percent
• Botswana: 0.19 percent
• Tunisia: 0.15 percent
• Guinea-Bissau: 0.078
• Equatorial Guinea: 0.063
• Eswatini: 0.062 percent
• Togo: 0.057 percent
• Rwanda: 0.055 percent
• Egypt: 0.054 percent
• Morocco: 0.051 percent
• Uganda: 0.033 percent
• Zimbabwe: 0.028 percent
• Kenya: 0.027 percent
• Gabon: 0.026 percent
• Mauritania: 0.021
• Namibia, 0.02 percent.

Also, concerning the number of tests carried out so far, at least 10 African countries have carried out more COVID-19 tests than Nigeria, despite recording their index cases  long after the country did. Nigeria, which recorded the first case of the coronavirus in Sub-Saharan Africa on February 28, the third African country to record a case of the virus, has carried out less than 10,000 tests so far.

South Africa, with a population of 58.6 million people, has tested 126,937 people, the highest in Africa, according to data from Worldometres, global statistics platform.

Some other countries which have recorded higher tests than Nigeria are Ghana with 68,591 tests; Egypt, 55,000; Morocco, 18,946; Tunisia, 18,165;  Kenya, 14, 704.

Others are Uganda with 14,761 tests; Ethiopia, 9,771; Mauritius, 9,755; and Djibouti, 8,955 tests.

WHY MASS TESTING IS IMPORTANT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has continued to advocate for mass testing — which experts say has a number of other benefits — as one of the key measures to curb the spread of the disease.

Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, re-echoed that recommendation in March.

“We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test. Test every suspected case. If they test positive, isolate them and find out who they have been in close contact with up to 2 days before they developed symptoms, and test those people too,” he had said.

A CNN report detailed how mass testing helped some countries which are said to have managed the coronavirus pandemic effectively.

In Taiwan, for instance, authorities carried out widespread testing in addition to tracing the contacts of infected people and putting them all under quarantine.

This piece is based on data available as of April 21, 2020.