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The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire said mass testing of Nigerians for coronavirus disease is not possible.
While fielding questions from newsmen on Wednesday after the arrival of the Chinese experts in Abuja, Ehanire said Nigeria has over 200 million population which makes mass testing impossible.
Therefore, government will continue testing those who had been abroad and also those who may have come in contact with any positive case.
The health minister stated: “We have 200 million citizens and mass testing is not something that I think is very feasible now. We are doing targeted testing.
“We are targeting those who are likely to have been affected, so we are looking at areas and persons who meet certain criteria that we set.
“The criteria are: having been abroad, having been in contact with persons who have been abroad or having been in a cluster of places where there are a lot of positives.
“Even though the testing is going into secondary, we are doing what is called smart testing in order to identify the cases that are giving us concern.”
He further stateed that researches were ongoing in many countries and government would rely on science and advice from World Health Organisation to overcome the pandemic.
