Let me try and shed more light on the issue of #COVID19 testing. Each country has its own protocol - case prevention, surveillance and case definition. There is no competition or reward for the country that has tested the most.
Nigeria's method relies on contact tracing, surveillance, possible cases and testing in addition to other preventive strategies.
Country A in Africa has tested 80,000 with 1000 positive cases. With the peculiar attack rate of the disease, it's likely that some cases were missed
Country A in Africa has tested 80,000 with 1000 positive cases. With the peculiar attack rate of the disease, it's likely that some cases were missed
Missed because of the testing protocol or methods used. For countries that rely on fast / rapid testing kits, WHO has consistently warned that a lot of the results may be wrong. If they are testing using the Antigen method, a negative result means 'nothing'... 
Nigeria uses the gold standard and the most accurate form of testing. It is more difficult, more expensive and requires more time and resources. The results ( number tested vs positive cases ) from our data is also in line with the attack rate of this #COVID19.
Should we switch to rapid tests? If we do, we will continue to test the same population over and over again because of false negatives and false positive results associated with rapid kits. Missed cases will go back into the community, begin to misbehave and infect more people.
Except there are rapid kits with high sensitivity and specificity recommended by the WHO, validated by researchers and approved for commercial use, we may only succeed in ramping up numbers of those tested by adopting rapid kits.
It's a different ball game if vaccines are available. We can rapidly test and vaccinate but in the absence of vaccination, the PCR test is still the most reliable for now.
We must continue to suppress transmission while working on expanding testing capacity.
We must continue to suppress transmission while working on expanding testing capacity.
Adherence to guidelines and protocols to suppress transmission is safer than random and mass testing.
Good Night!
Good Night!
Ghana is pooling samples. Nigeria is testing per case per kit. There is a difference between the two methods.
Only South Africa in Sub Saharan Africa can match our testing capacity. As at April 10, South Africa had 5000 capacity PCR testing laboratories. They have scaled up now with mobile centres which we have also done in Lagos and Ogun to increase sample collection.
If you see any big number out there in Africa asides Egypt and the Arab nations, the country is either pooling samples in 100s or 200s to save kits or using rapid tests.
