The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said on Tuesday the centre would increase its capacity to test for the coronavirus to 1500 per day in the country.

Ihekweazu stated this at the Presidential Taskforce Briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja.

He said the focus of NCDC  efforts was to improve the number of people that could be tested for the disease.

He said: “Last week, we had the capacity to test 500 per day, by the end of this week we will be at 1000 a day.

“By next week we are hoping to get to 1500 a day.”

Ihekweazu, however, said that Nigerians need to reduce the demand side of the testing to those who really needed it.

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He noted that the more the people force themselves into being tested, the less NCDC would have the capacity to test those who really need the screening.

In a related development, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said that the ministry was unrelenting in its school children feeding.

She said the ministry would liaise with the state governments to work out the modalities to know how to go about the programme, despite the stay-at-home directive.

Farouq also disclosed that the ministry has about 2.6 million poor and vulnerable households on its social register. (NAN)

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