Need For COVID-19 Lab In Rivers

I want to thank you for your firm, strong, committed and personally-led response to COVID-
19 in Rivers State. Rivers is one of the most important economies in the country. So, Rivers is important, not only to you but to the entire country. We thank you very much for your leadership and we need your leadership to continue in order for us to continue doing our work nationally”. That was part of how the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, captured the pivotal economic position Rivers State occupies and the robust efforts of the Chief Executive of the state in ensuring the protection of not only the lives and property of the indigenes and residents of the state, but also safeguarding vital economic interest of the country threatened by the ravaging COVID-19 global pandemic.
As noted by the NCDC DG, victory in the battle against COVID-19 in Nigeria largely depends on the strength of the synergy between the national and sub-national administrations, with all parties conscientiously, adequately, timely and proactively playing their parts.
It is on this plank that The Tide is concerned that it has taken too long for the Federal Government to set up a functional Coronavirus disease laboratory in Rivers State and strongly urges the federal authorities to activate a testing centre in the state without further delay.
We believe that every facility and infrastructure necessary for the containment of the deadly pandemic in the country should have been up and running from the word go, knowing that apart from being a part of the frontline social and economic nerve centre of the country, Rivers State also hosts the majority of foreigners in Nigeria, only next to Lagos and Abuja. The compelling need for the full-scale operation of all response activities against COVID-19 in Rivers State by the central administration is also underscored by the fact that the state remains an entry and exit point of trans-national travellers in and out of the country through its active international airport and sea ports.
Last week Wednesday, the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, at the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force press briefing in Abuja, disclosed that a total of 12 functional COVID-19 testing laboratories, with a capacity to test 1,500 samples daily had been activated in the country. The question is: why and how come Rivers State has still not been considered for one?
We are not unaware that Osun, Lagos, Oyo, FCT, Sokoto, Kaduna, Kano, Ebonyi, Borno, Plateau and Rivers States were originally programmed to be provided with testing laboratories but we find it curious that Rivers State that should have been prioritised among others is yet to have one with 12 already running, even though it is obvious and understandable why a state like Lagos should have multiple at this point in time.
By a stroke of good fortune and the resources and energy mustered by the Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, the state is free of any confirmed case of COVID-19 infection after the successful treatment and discharge of the two index cases. However, the country cannot afford to push her luck too far by the seeming lack of urgency in doing the needful, the expedient and the imperative.
To continue to procrastinate the setting up of a functional laboratory in the state is to expose the population to mortal danger and to run the risk of stretching the lean resources of the state government beyond elastic limits.
The Rivers State Government has, so far, done a commendable job of holding the forth and keeping the rampaging murderous COVID-19 at bay by the number of stringent and often painful measures with alertness, regular evaluation and unrelenting monitoring of the situation.
The strength of the government is also greatly tasked and strained by the corollary need for the provision of palliatives to the people whose sources of livelihood have had to be shutdown to prevent a possible community spread with its devastating consequences.
With the state government undertaking to buy food and distributing to the people in the 23 local government areas in order to keep them at home as a measure to stave off avoidable contacts and transmission of the virus; the establishment of isolation and treatment centres and the additional provision of other personal protective items, there is no denying the fact that the government needs as much assistance as it can get from all stakeholders in order to make the response a holistic one with guaranteed victory.
A stitch in time, they say, saves nine and in recognition of the critical value of early detection, isolation and treatment in the COVID-19 containment effort, The Tide is constrained to insist that the setting up of a testing laboratory in Rivers State is a necessity that needs to be attended to with utmost dispatch by the Federal Government and or any other concerned corporate bodies.
To this end, we urge the International Oil Companies (IOCs), jointly or separately, and other multi-nationals doing business in the state (at whose instance the state hosts a good number of its expatriate population) to quickly think in the direction of meeting this all important need that will save lives, protect the economy of the state and restore normalcy in the general state of affairs in good time, even as we recognise and acknowledge the contributions already made by some organisations.