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The Presidential Task Force PTF on coronavirus revealed that over forty health workers have tested positive for the diseaase.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire revealed this during the PTF media briefing on COVID-19 on Thursday.
Ehanire urged frontline health workers to always protect themselves when treating patients diagnosed with the infection.
Referring to the health workers, he said: “I urge you all to take the necessary precautions. Please do not try to treat patients without adequate PPE.
“This advice is necessary due to the number of health workers who have tested positive, they are over 40 now and some others have had to be quarantined in the last two weeks due to exposure and are therefore not able to contribute to the health sector efforts.
“I urge you all to remain vigilant in the line of duty.”
The health minister also spoke on the country’s testing capacity and attributed the high number of new cases to improved testing in the country.
He said: “The NCDC laboratories have the capacity to test 1,500 samples per day in 13 laboratories per day.
“We are testing an average of 600 samples per day because that is all the samples collected and sent for testing.”
Adding that, “the under-utilisation can be due to surveillance, sample collection and mode of transportation which could be improved through investments in logistics.
