Oyo State Governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, has called for the certification of more testing centres for the state in its bid to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Makinde said this on Tuesday during the visit of officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation to the state.
Makinde said the certification of more testing centres in the state would enable it to ramp up the testing of at least 10,000 persons for COVID-19 within a short time.
The governor, who expressed appreciation to the NCDC for its efforts at curtailing the outbreak, said the state needed the support of the NCDC.
He said, “We believe in science and logic. We need your support. Though we have a laboratory that you have already certified, we also feel that the laboratory at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture needs to be certified.
“I want to thank you for the work you are doing nationally in this country. The infrastructure for infectious diseases nationally is very weak. So, we have all had to ramble and ensure that we get ready to tackle the challenges we are faced with.
“We know that for us to be able to identify how the virus is behaving within our environment and community, we have to do more testing and structure it in such a way that if we pull in all of the results, we can map the State. For example, to date, about 45 per cent of the positive cases we have had in Oyo State is from University College Hospital, Ibadan.”
The NCDC Director-General, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said he led the NCDC and WHO teams to Oyo State to show that there was the need to share technical ideas on how to find a solution to COVID-19.
He noted that the virus made sharing and learning imperative, adding that the NCDC team was impressed with the commitment of the governor and his team across all aspects of the response to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof. Abiodun Otegbayo, said the number of tests being carried out for COVID-19 in the state was grossly inadequate due to scarcity of required resources for the exercise.
Otegbayo who requested the assistance of the federal and the state governments in the area of infrastructure supply, said testing was critical in the fight against the virus.
“We have a laboratory for COVID-19 test within this territory (UCH) and that is why as a knowledge-based medical institute, many people are bound to come here for tests. If you go to Saki, Sepeteri, Ogbomoso, and Oyo, you will discover how many cases that you will see.
“Generally in Oyo State now, testing is not enough. Fortunately, last week or so, Governor Seyi Makinde opened a working centre at Adamasingba in Ibadan. They said they want to test 10,000, but to my knowledge, the number tested is so few and I heard there are some challenges concerning it,” he said.

By Wale Oyewale