Kaduna State Government says it has secured a mobile laboratory for COVID-19 test and other infectious diseases in the state.
Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai, who made this known on Thursday in Kaduna, said the laboratory, earlier donated by USAID for tuberculosis test, was deployed to the communities for COVID-19 test and the effort had yielded result.
He said the mobile laboratory tagged: Wellness On Wheels (WOW), which had been in the state for a while, was to increase the rate of testing in the communities.
“There is a 16 per cent rate of infection in the communities that have been tested. The high-risk areas are the border communities with neighbouring states that have large cases of the pandemic
“The testing has helped a lot because, for the first time, the government is getting the demographic spread of the pandemic in the state,” he said.
El-Rufai advised residents to adhere to the preventive measures as young people could have the disease without showing symptoms and could transmit it to their parents and older people which might lead to death.
The Coordinator of WOW, Dr Mustapha Tukur said the mobile laboratory had two components – the X-ray and COVID-19 testing units.
He said that the X-ray unit was for pathology test to determine tuberculosis and other lung-related diseases while the other unit was for COVID-19 test.
“It’s a collaborative effort, as we conduct these tests, Kaduna State Ministry of Health also performs other major tests of different ailments.
“The laboratory has the ability to test about 64 persons daily and results issued after 15 minutes.
“Within six days of commencing the test in Kaduna North, South and Kawo communities, 297 persons have been tested and 36 people were positive for COVID-19,” he said.
According to Tukur, there are just two of such mobile laboratory from USAID in the country, one in the South and one in Kaduna.
