PRIVATE LABORATORIES IN LAGOS GETS APPROVAL TO BEGIN COVID-19 TESTS
Lagos State Government Ministry of Health has granted permission to seven private laboratories to carry out COVID-19 tests.
After a series of rigorous accreditation and validation process, Total Medical Services, SynLab, 54 Gene, Medbury Medical Services, Biologix Medical Services, 02 Medical Services and Clina Lancent Laboratories has been licensed to test members of the public for COVID-19 in line with the Lagos State Government’s plan to expand its testing capacity and make it widely available to the public.
“In a bid to ramp up our testing capacity, we have taken a strategic decision to include private laboratories in the testing of COVID-19. However, the State’s COVID-19 response will remain a centrally managed emergency response by the State Government and the need to test will be surveillance driven and based on a clear case definition,” the Honourable Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi said.
Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) Kits Are Illegal In Lagos State
The Health Commissioner stated that the approved laboratories would only carry out PCR tests as the use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) kits are illegal in Lagos State.
Explaining further, Prof. Abayomi said none of the RDT kits submitted for validation passed the validation exercise.
“However, upon review of the several RDT kits that were submitted for validation, we can report that none of the RDT kits passed the validation exercise. RDT kits have a very high risk of giving false positive or negative results and in the event that a false positive result is given, a potentially negative person will be subjected to trauma, isolation and treatment like a positive patient. In the event that a false negative is given, a potentially positive person is allowed to continue to roam freely in the community regardless of his positive status”, Abayomi explained.
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