COVID-19 Test Centres Empty In Abuja

As the world struggles with the upsurge of new COVID-19 variants which have led to more cases and deaths in some countries, health experts have advised that getting vaccinated is one of the most important things you must do to protect yourself against COVID-19.

But it doesn’t appear Nigerians are being sensitized enough to know the importance of getting tested and receiving the vaccination against the deadly virus.

According to the NCDC, a total of 266,463 covid-19 cases have been reported since the outbreak of the pandemic, out of which 3,155 deaths were recorded.

So far, only a total of 63, 966,056 people are fully vaccinated out of an estimated population of over 200 million.

When THE WHISTLER visited some of the test centres in Abuja to see how residents of the nation’s capital are responding to news about the latest variant XBB.1.5 strain of Omicron, which is currently the dominant subvariant globally and the most contagious so far, there was not much going on.

At Nisa Premier Hospital, Lifecamp, which used to be a huge Covid-19 test centre, the place was deserted when this newspaper visited the place.

Our correspondent saw only the empty containers used to house medical personnel and equipment were seen.

At the Nizamiye (Turkish) Hospital and the EHA clinics in Abuja, our correspondent also observed that the testing centres were empty as people no longer come in for test.

Other testing centres in Abuja such as the Royal Special Hospital, Surjen Healthcare and Medic Diagnostic Centre are also facing similar situations.

They now request that an appointment has to be made before anyone can get tested for Covid.

THE WHISTLER spoke with Dr. Victor, head of the Covid-19 Taskforce at Nisa Premier Hospital, regarding turnout for tests and vaccination.

He said patients still trickle into the hospital to request for the covid test, although THE WHISTLER did not see any evidence of that.

“Just that we’re not seeing the kind of numbers we used to see during the pandemic or the first and second waves of the pandemic.

“The numbers have significantly reduced but we’re still seeing people and we are reporting them to the appropriate channels like the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Public Health,” he said.
The few who come to the hospital, according to him, are carefully analysed before they are recommended for covid test.

“In some cases, we have a risk assessment that we do with patients that have symptoms suggesting it’s covid. We have an assessment tool that we use. If after the assessment we discover that they score high, we’ll counsel them and tell them we think you may have covid, then proceed to test,” he said.

He said although the variant seen in China this year hasn’t been reported in Nigeria yet, Nigerians “must be cautious.”