The Anambra Government has discharged eight more COVID-19 patients.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Vincent Okpala, who made this known in a statement, on Sunday in Awka, said this was after their post-treatment tests for the COVID-19 returned negative.
According to him, Anambra has successfully treated and discharged 11 COVID-19 patients out of a total of 14 confirmed cases in the state.
Of the remaining three cases, the commissioner confirmed that one escaped to Lagos, while the other two sadly died of the contagion.
He said that the 11 patients, who recovered, including the index case were treated in the state’s Protective Care Centres and discharged in record time.
“The battle against the virus has raged on but the state government has deployed strategies to ensure its containment,” he noted.
According to him, the community search programme has been buoyed by the presence of new testing centres in the state.
Okpala said the feat was as a result of an effective Public-Private Partnership initiative between the state government and a Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)-certified private testing laboratory centre in Nnewi.
“However, it is interesting to note that Anambra will soon expand the scope of testing for coronavirus as the mega PCR Laboratory at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Teaching Hospital (COOTH), Amaku, is set to be confirmed as a testing centre.
“We have got the test kits. The machines there are among the best in the country that use special test kits,’’ Okpala explained.
The commissioner said the COOUTH testing facility had five Abbott m2000 platforms, each of which could run 94 tests per cycle.
He said when fully operational, tests of five cycles in 24 hours could be carried out, translating to 470 tests a day per machine.
“If you were to dedicate the five machines to COVID-19 testing, you will hit 2,350 tests per day.
“NCDC is the only body authorised to import these test kits into Nigeria and it has a lot of challenges getting the kits because of scarcity and logistics.
“But for the determination and persistence of Gov. Willie Obiano, we have finally achieved a breakthrough,” he said.
