As part of measures to avert the further spread of Coronavirus, COVID-19 in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said it had commenced community outreach to test persons with coronavirus symptoms.
The Director of Public Health of the FCT, Josephine Okechukwu, disclosed this to journalists.
She said “We started the community active case search in Mpape yesterday by sensitization and sample collection of eligible clients. It will be expanded to other communities.”
FCT To Test Persons With COVID-19 Symptoms
According to Okechukwu, the deployed personnel will screen everyone with a history of cough, fever, catarrh, chest pain and difficulty in breathing.
“This is to detect everyone with COVID-19 and get them treated promptly to break the chain of transmission in the FCT.”
She added that the testing would extend to Gishiri, Utako and Mabushi on Wednesday and Thursday.
Also, the chairperson of the FCT COVID-19 response committee, Aliyu Umar said the community testing might witness an upsurge in the number of cases in the city.
Mr Umar, a former minister of the FCT, urged residents not to panic in case of any discovery as it was better to discover the cases than allow them to spread the virus quietly.
It was gathered that Mpape was selected to begin the community tracing because of its proximity to Maitama where most of the FCT cases were found.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC disclosed that Twenty new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed as at 09:50 pm 13th April bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 343.