COVID-19: Abia to commence community testing soon- Commissioner

The Abia state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Osuji, announced on Thursday that the state government would start community testing for coronavirus soon, to curb the spread of the disease.

On April 20, Abia state recorded its index case of the disease with two elderly persons, who had no travel history.

Osuji said the need to test people in communities arose because the manifestation of the two index cases had shown that there might have been community infection, which needed to be nipped in the bud.

“Community testing will soon commence, but we have not started it yet. We will have to complete contact tracing before we start community testing.

“After contact tracing, those who require sample collection will be known, but for those who do not, we will be monitoring them every day because we have their names, addresses and numbers,” he said.

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According to Osuji, the index cases may or may not have infected many people, but having manifested the presence of the disease inside the state, government requires to act urgently to check the spread.

He noted that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu had ordered stringent security checks at boundary communities in the state to stop infected people entering the state.

The commissioner said that medical experts have started treating the two index cases, assuring that there was no cause for alarm.