Nigerians on coronavirus infection watch list now have to wait for a week or more to get their results, investigation has shown.

Many people who are anxious to know their status have to endure days of uncertainty and trauma, our correspondents from across the states report. States without testing centres also face challenges sending samples to Abuja or other neighbouring states, while health officials work under pressure to collect samples while managing the suspecting cases before the release of the results. Checks revealed that the delay, which in most cases takes over one week has put suspected victims, their families and healthcare givers on the edge. Some patients die or their conditions get worse while others recover from their symptoms before the results arrive with experts saying the development was aiding community transmission and complication, making efforts to stem spread impossible.

A source at Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), however said the time of results depends on factors such as quantity of samples to be tested and the distance for the sample to reach the lab. Director-General of NCDC, Mr Chikwe Ihekweazu, had during a briefing on March 31, said “It takes 24 to 48 hours for a coronavirus test to be done and the result released.”

Ihekweazu said NCDC was working towards reducing the duration to 12 hours. “Molecular testing is carried out in runs. One run can take six to seven hours. We have now almost optimised the process to do three runs a day in each lab.” However, with just about 17 molecular laboratory test centres nationwide, experts said it takes a lot of time to convey samples to designated locations.

Our reporters observed that NCDC engages the services of some transport firms for its logistics. It has unveiled two mobile labs in Lagos and Ogun, with the third donated by Dangote for Kano.

That notwithstanding, Nigeria’s capacity to test for COVID-19 is still below one percent as it strives to protect its population of over 200 million people. The test rate is also behind what obtains in Ghana, South Africa and other countries battling the pandemic.

A comparative data analysis of the people so far tested in Nigeria after nearly three months of the outbreak is just 0.02 per cent.

Residents crave for listening ear

Residents with suspected Covid-19 cases in FCT and states recount difficulties getting response when they called NCDC national and state toll-free lines to request for intervention.

Katsina

Absence of a testing centre is one of the major challenges in the ongoing fight against Covid-19 in Katsina. It was gathered that collected samples have to be taken to either Kano or Abuja.

When the Kano testing centre closed, Katsina had to take its samples to Abuja and in most cases, it took more than a week before results were returned.

At one time, over 20 samples had to be recollected from the suspected patients after the Kano centre was closed down.

Mr Hassan, a resident of Katsina said calls to the Covid-19 toll line in the state were not usually answered.

“And when they eventually do, they would promise to get across to you but they won’t.”

Another resident of Katsina, Sani Auwal, said people within the metropolis especially in the GRA get responses faster because they have designated addresses that could be easily located unlike those living in villages in LGAs.

A staff of one of the emergency call operation centres in the state who does not want his name in print, said the delay in responses has to do with coordination.

“This is because when you answer a call and document it, you then pass the information to the relevant organisation before they get across to the complainant,” he said.

When contacted, Executive Secretary of the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Mr Shamsudeen Yahaya, said ongoing lockdown makes passing through Kaduna State with samples more difficult.

He said that Katsina with over eight million people deserves its own testing centre.

He said: “We cannot predict when our results will return when taken to Abuja because there may be queues there. Sometimes it comes between two to four days which is early, and it takes more than that time to return in many cases.”

Lagos

Even though Lagos has testing centres, a medical doctor in the state told our correspondent in confidence that sometimes it takes up to a week before confirming a result, adding that there are sometimes insufficient testing kits contrary to what state authorities claim. Mrs Bimbo Dada (not real name) said the result of her Covid-19 test was released after 72 hours. She said she went for the test on a Sunday morning and got the result the following Wednesday night. Upon enquiry, she was told that LUTH had problems with their testing materials.

Another resident who preferred to be anonymous said he called NCDC national toll free number and someone picked the call, asked few questions and promised to get back to him but never did.

“Without wasting much time, I called the dedicated contact numbers for Ikeja local government. This is a new development by Lagos to facilitate Covid-19 testing in communities. Out of the five numbers for Ikeja Local government area, only one was picked. The person who picked asked one or two questions and decided to schedule me for an appointment. After taking the samples, they promised to send the results though they didn’t mention any specific time.”

He is yet to get his result as at press time, days after the test was allegedly done.

Kano

There is mixed reaction about NCDC’s response to emergency calls in Kano State. While some of the residents who had tested for the disease commended the state Covid-19 response team and NCDC officials for their prompt response, others expressed lack of confidence in how the issue was being handled.

Narrating his experience, Mr Abba Malam said he called the NCDC toll free mobile numbers when he started having fever and cough about two weeks ago.

He said that within thirty minutes after he called, two Hilux vans arrived his compound and his samples were taken for test. He said the NCDC advised him to self -isolate, gave him a thermometer to keep monitoring his temperature and called him daily to ask about his condition. He commended the team saying his results thereafter came out negative.

Mukhtar Halliru in a Facebook post said he lost his father recently due to an illness with Covid-19 symptoms. He alleged that he called the testing toll line in Kano State for days on end and when he finally got a link to them, he was asked to send the address and phone number of the sick person. He said they spent seven days waiting for the NCDC sampling team but no one showed up and his father died while they were waiting.

Also, Mr Auwalu Umar said he called NCDC toll free line over five times but nobody answered.

A source said two of his relatives died of Covid-19 because their status was not verified on time. “The first person took ill and his brother was taking care of him not knowing that it was a case of coronavirus. When the man died, his brother took ill and also died after fourteen days,” he said.

Kaduna

The state Commissioner for Health, Mrs Amina Mohammed-Baloni, said with at least two testing centres in Kaduna up and running, samples were no longer conveyed to Abuja for testing.

Baloni said before the state’s testing capacity was boosted, samples taken to Abuja usually took between 24 and 48 hours for results to be made available but that results now come out between four to six hours following the addition of the state’s two molecular laboratories.

A 50 year-old woman from Rigachikun, Kaduna State who called the toll-free line in early April to report that a relative who returned from Lagos had exhibited symptoms of Covid-19, told our correspondent that she was attended to promptly.

Curious tales from Ondo, Benue, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Abuja, Gombe

There is no testing centre for Covid-19 in Ondo and samples have to be taken to Ede in Osun State, the state epidemiologist, Mr Stephen Fagbemi, said.

Fagbemi said it takes two days for the result of samples to be returned to them, saying it was not a convenient option and that the state had pleaded with the federal government to provide it a testing centre to ease the difficulties faced by victims and authorities.

A driver who recently took samples to the testing centre in Osun got infected with the virus and is now undergoing treatment at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Akure. The index case in Benue State has lamented in a series of videos that no one showed her the results of the three tests she had done since arriving Abuja.

Checks in Kebbi State revealed that most residents in the state do not know whether any toll free number for reaching out to the Kebbi State Task Force on Covid-19 exists.

A senior staff of the state Ministry of Health in Nasarawa State who wants to remain anonymous, said it takes three to four days for the result to be ready.

Governor Abdullahi Sule recently disclosed that a driver of NCDC who was transporting samples from Nasarawa to Abuja tested positive for Covid-19.

Some residents of Abuja who had undergone Covid-19 test said it took between five days to over a week for them to get their results. A source with the testing team said the large number of testing samples account for the delay sometimes.

Why Covid-19 test takes time

Director, Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Control, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Mr Isa Abubakar Sadiq, who is a member of the state taskforce committee on Covid-19, said the ideal way to take samples during a pandemic is for the rapid response team to meet the patients at home and collect their samples while the persons self-isolate before the result comes out.

“This is to avoid further transmission of the disease either within the family or in the community,” he said.

He said after collecting the samples the rapid response team in liaison with EOC takes the samples to the laboratory for testing. And after the testing, the result is forwarded to epidemiologists who analyse the result to identify those who test positive and those who test negative.

The professor said the process takes time in the state due to logistics challenges at different stages. He called for improved access to NCDC toll free mobile numbers as a way of bridging the gap. He said challenges encountered in the laboratory could also delay test such as lack of water, electricity and lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

According to him, “Sometimes ago we had problem with air conditioners, because if you wear those PPE without proper air conditioning system, you can suffocate within 30 minutes.”

He said lack of laboratory consumables like bleach, ethanol, detergent, goggles, and hand-gloves could also cause delay adding that sometimes some tests needed to be repeated because they may not tell clearly whether positive or negative due to machine error.

A medical and molecular microbiologist, Mr Ifeanyi Cajetan Casmir, said the challenges with the transporting and testing of samples could expose the country to more transmission of the disease.

Casmir who is also the national publicity secretary of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), said the way forward is for every state in the country and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to upgrade the laboratories in their state teaching hospitals and (where a teaching hospital is not available) its specialist hospital to a Covid-19 testing centre.

He said Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), which is a body pivotal to diagnosis and testing was willing to partner NCDC and all state governments to overcome challenges associated with testing.

Daily Trust