Oyo State Emergency Operation Centre Incident Manager, Dr Taiwo Ladipo has shared that the centre is providing free COVID tests using COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits that give results within an hour. The tests will be available at six designated centres in Oyo state.
Dr Ladipo said that 8,700 tests had already been carried out within the last 6 weeks using the COVID-19 rapid testing kits that were deployed for use at the NYSC orientation camp in Oyo state and for testing medical students upon resumption at the University College Hospital.
He revealed that some of the 150,000 COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits allocated to Oyo state have already been deployed into communities across Oyo state and added that anyone with a positive result will be required to undergo a polymerase chain reaction confirmatory test.
He said: “So people need not think testing is difficult if they really need it. The six designated centres, including Idiogungun Primary Health care centre and State Hospital Oyo, is with the aim of increasing access to testing and fast track result.”
He stated that Oyo State is focused on monitoring sentinel sites to observe and track the infection trend, monitoring test results of incoming international travellers, a vaccination campaign, routine response activities and a mass screening exercise using the COVID-19 rapid testing kits provided.
He also advised those who haven’t been vaccinated yet in Oyo state to do so during the next round of COVID-19 vaccinations.
The Oyo state Diseases Surveillance Notification officer, Mrs Titilope Akinyele also spoke to the press and said that factors that are increasing the risk of COVID-19 resurgence include persistent public misconceptions and the abandonment of non-pharmaceutical preventive measures.
She also listed other factors such as poor awareness of suspected cases, refusal of free COVID-19 testing opportunities confirmed COVID-19 positive individuals and their contacts refusing to isolate and unauthorized personnel handling COVID-19 cases.