Thread by @ChidiOdinkalu

Does #Nigeria have #COVID19 test centre outside the 5 @NCDCgov molecular lab network:

1. @acegid_lab in Ede, Osun
2. NCDC National Ref Lab, Abuja
3. @ISTH_Irrua , Edo
4. @LUTHofficial Virology Lab
5. @nimrnigeria, Lagos.

None in the North; none in SE. But we like the figures?

If there isn't, then I am willing to go out on a limb & wager the numbers being put out by @NCDCgov right now may be part of the problem rather than part of the solution in giving people a false sense of security, since testing isn't really available to most who cld need it.

So, look at the political geography of access to testing: if you present with symptoms in Calabar or Port Harcourt, u have to motor specimen to Irrua; From Katsina or Damaturu or Yola, it's a v long ride to Abuja. Where is the storage to make sure specimens don't degrade?

I'll be v surprised if #Nigeria has up to 800 ICU units. So, the strategy of subliminally messaging the country into a sense of comfort on #COVID19 doesn't stand up to facts or logics. Why can't @Fmohnigeria & @Nigeriagov, who surely dictate the policy here, square with the ppl?

It seems quite straightforward, in the absence of a contrary map of testing capabilities, that #Nigeria's only pathway as the map of #COVID19 makes its way towards #Africa is an aggressive preventive programme built on clear & brutal & total enlightenment, with some intervention.

It is safe to assume, therefore, that #Nigeria almost certainly has potentially many more positives than @NCDCgov has so far picked up or announced. That is inherent in the epidemiological #LayOfTheLand. I believe @NCDCgov has a duty to admit this.

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