COVID19: Cross River to begin drive-through testing

The Cross River state government has announced plans to start a drive-through and walk-in COVID19 testing center at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

Speaking at a meeting with media practitioners on 29/06/2020, the State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Betta Edu, said the state had already started the training of health workers who will man the center and be responsible for taking samples.

Dr. Betta explained that the training is holding with support from the NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health, who will give approval for the operation of the center.

Dr. Betta held that the state has received a donation of 1056 PCR testing and extraction kits from Stanbic IBTC and the State will run on that, pending when more kits are received from the NCDC.

Betta insisted that the Cross River State Government is not afraid of recording any covid19 case, but that there is no need to spread fear and panic amongst Cross Riverians when no case has been confirmed.

The Commissioner of Health added that the zero-case in the state has not been a mistake, as the state has put up one of the best Covid-19 responses of any state in Nigeria and that effort has yielded results.