₦airaland Forum

Agboriotejoye:
Testing with what?
We've been able to ramp up testing through donations from Jack Ma, China and now UN

Could you give us more details about how the tests are conducted and what reagents and machines are needed to conduct them? Thanks.

Agboriotejoye:
Really?
Jack Ma's test kits is 500k? How come our press are not calling out govt on the slow pace of testing? The media have generally painted a picture of ambience concerning this issue. If that information is available and no one is raising hell about it then I guess we're a nation of unserious people.
We're being ruled by incompetence and cool with it

As soon as I read this I went to double-check It seems that I was wrong about the number of test kits Nigeria got. Apologies to everyone:

"Let me announce that we have received donated safety and test kits from the Jack Ma Foundation in China. The supplies are:

– 100,000 Face Masks
– 1,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
– 20,000 test kits"

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/jack-mas-coronavirus-testing-kits-reach-nigeria/articleshow/74829029.cms

I remember seeing the 500,000 figure somewhere. I figured that we got 50% of Jack Ma's 1.1m test kits because of our huge population:

Ma announced a donation of a total of 1.1 million testing kits, six million masks, and 60,000 protective suits and face shields to help the continent in its fight against the new coronavirus last week.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/16/africa/jack-ma-donate-masks-coronavirus-africa/index.html

But they shared the test-kits equally with all 54 countries in Africa (54 * 20000 = 1080000 or ~1.1m test kits), which is unfortunate.

Agboriotejoye:
Testing with what? We've been able to ramp up testing through donations from Jack Ma, China and now UN

Jack Ma's 500,000 20,000 testkits landed in Nigeria on March 24. That's 23 days ago. That's a very long time in the Coronavirus era. [s]These are the same test kits that other African countries like South Africa have used to test many more people and isolate them to slow down the spread of the virus.[/s] It looks as if he gave the same number of test kits to all countries in Africa which is why the smaller countries have been able to test way more people per capita than Nigeria.

With the Coronavirus, trying to economize test kits isn't recommended. If there are 1000 infected people in the country and you have to burn through 100,000 test-kits in order to identify and isolate all of them, you should do it immediately. If you delay because you don't want to "waste" the test kits, there may be 10,000 infected people by then and you will have to test 1 million people in order to isolate and identify all of them.

einsteine:
South Korea has a crazy enemy just across the border that's willing to use bioweapons so they have built a serious capability against epidemics/pandemics.

I know you mean North Korea, but China is a bigger threat because that is where the viruses come from.

We’ve seen this play out all over the world. By not testing enough, people are deceived into thinking the virus is not spreading. Meanwhile, the virus keeps spreading on the down-low. When they finally start testing, there is an explosion of new cases. In some cases the virus' spreading advances to a point where they lose all hope of containing it and only test people with major symptoms who need to be hospitalized.

There is no alternative to testing. Lockdowns and even wearing face-masks will only slow it down. Testing sufficiently can stop the virus. If you can find all the people that are currently infected and isolate them, the disease can no longer spread. It's very simple, but not easy. You have to keep testing as many people as you can and eventually it will get to a point where the new cases will start dropping. It happened in South Korea and Taiwan. The longer you wait, the more massive the testing you have to do to contain the virus. Not containing it is not an option.

The policy of only testing people with travel history was terribly, comically, and obviously unwise. I'm glad that PMB forced the policy to change.

They should have started testing aggressively from the get go.
By not doing that they allowed the disease to continue spreading silently.
Now they will have to test many more cases to contain the virus.

rusher14:
Testing is not the end to the virus. Heck , the only benefit you gain is that you know who to isolate from the general population.

Knowing who to isolate is a heck of a benefit. It means you don't have to lock down the commercial capital of your country because of a few hundred people who are infected with the virus. You only need to lock down the infected minority, and the majority can go on with their lives.

Also, as long as there are infected people out there who have not been tested, the virus will continue to spread even under lockdown. Testing is the only real solution that can stop the virus. Lockdown will only slow it down at great cost.

I saw this coming. We all saw this coming. Our leaders saw this coming. Yet they failed to prevent it. The absurdity of shooting people dead to save lives.

candidbabe:
What a fuckery? Can't the election wait?

Wait for what?

UnknownT:
Seun, you should also look at Taiwan. They are doing well fighting the virus

You're right. They are beating the mini outbreak they were still struggling with the last time I checked. Their policies make a lot of sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKQ12naDIdI

A British presenter talks to South Korea's ambassador to the UK Enna Park to find out the secret to their success against the Coronavirus.

Q. South Korea was one of the first countries to report a significant outbreak of COVID-19 but a relatively small number of people have died in the country compared to elsewhere. What lessons can others learn from South Korea?

A. Well, Korea has successfully flattened the curve but we know that still it hasn't come to an end yet, so we have to keep vigilant, but, yes, the Korean case seems quite successful. Even though it is not the only perfect model for other countries to follow, we can share the lessons we learned. The main lesson we learned is that testing is very important, so at the beginning of the outbreak we encouraged medical research institutes to develop test kits and we gave very quick approval and we also encouraged the Korean companies to produce test kits at large scale. So we built up a stockpile and it was the foundation of mass testing. Our strategy was test, trace, and treat and it's worked so far.

Q. Interesting, you tested about half a million people; that's around 200,000 more than the UK despite having a smaller population. Do you think the UK should be testing more people?

A. So far we have conducted more than half million tests, so in terms of population per capita Korea is the highest testing country in the world¹. You know, early detection is very critical for [effective] treatment. Early detection through tracing. We track down all suspected cases, all contacts of the confirmed cases, and utilize advanced tech, ICT tech like credit card transaction record history, CCTV footage, and mobile phone GPS data. So we trace all suspected cases and all contacts and we put those people into the right medical facilities for early medical intervention. That's how we have kept the fatality rate very low, around less than 2%.

Q. Interesting to hear how important contact tracing has been, but you there just saying that you used CCTV, GPS data from phones, credit card transactions. Is there a concern about privacy?

A. Of course, there have been concerns expressed. However, 5 years ago when we were hit by MERS, we introduced new laws to make tracing easier in case of a new outbreak of infectious disease, and the law stipulates to what extent we can collect information and how we can use it, what the limits are, and how we deal with the information to protect privacy. We used the information to track them but we disclosed only relevant and anonymous information to the public.And we tried to balance public healthcare concerns and privacy. You know, people in Korea were willing to compromise their privacy to some extent for the sake of the greater good of public health, and I think that is civic awareness.

Q. One of the things I want to ask you about is face-masks, because many people in South Korea wear face-masks to protect themselves and others from Coronavirus, but isn't officially recommended in the UK. Do you think it should be?

A. Well, every country has different challenges and different background, so I can't say UK government should or should not, but the Korea government made it an official recommendation to wear masks, because based on our experience and our research, we know that masks help reduce the risk of being affected and also transmitting it. We take into account that there are many confirmed cases with no symptoms, so you can spread the virus without knowing it. We know that wearing masks doesn't completely prevent being infected or transmitting the virus, but it helps.

Q. I want to ask about a concerning story. Around 91 patients who were classed as being cured of Coronavirus in South Korea have tested positive again according to the Centers for Disease Control & prevention. Does that mean we might not get immunity to COVID-19 or does that mean that the tests are not reliable?

A. We are not quite sure. The test itself is quite reliable, but we do not know enough about this virus. After being cured and diagnosed that you're fully recovered, there is still a possibility that the virus is alive in your body and is reactivated. So we are in the process of learning about the virus in a more complete way.

¹South Korea's testing rate per capita is no longer the highest in the world. Having brought their outbreak under control through massive testing, they no longer have to test as much as they used to. If you test enough, the newly confirmed cases will go up sharply and then start to drop like South Korea's after you have isolated most of the infected people.

adanny01:
Almost the entire 1st page is filled with comments either entirely out of context, filled with bile or outright nonsense.

The issue here is that the number of confirmed cases vs the no of people exposed to the virus is in a geometric multiple. The issue here is not that government has failed but that Nigerians need to understand the rationale of the lockdown and the gravity of the exposure of the virus.

With the comments on this thread's 1st page, it is alarming to note that Nigerians really are not helping the government. If this virus truely breaks, it will surely ravage this country and Nigerians will be blamed.

Do you work for the NCDC? If so, I urge you to create threads educating us about the situation.

Walkingkilo:
It's so pathetic!
I can boldly confirm to you that there are more than 5,000 cases of coronavirus in Lagos only. The ones NCDC reports are the ones they found and tested with the few tests they manage to carry out.. Lots of suspected coronavirus cases don't get tested.

Tell us some detailed stories That you have experienced or heard about. Home page is assured.

olaztek:
They will soon give us another one like
"Corona virus can spread through yawning, laughing and crying"

It can spread through breathing if you are in an enclosed area with a Coronavirus infected person and you’re not wearing a quality face-mask.

Is it the Coronavirus that will cause the recession or our government’s approach to fighting the virus, as advised by experts in the same category as the ones predicting a bleak future for us?

They need to be tested.

Good one

macjireh:
a lot of people who were negative became positive after d test.... is DAT wat u want?

If we feel that the test-kits may be contaminated, we can just test them. The Coronavirus has not been reported to last longer than a few days on any surface, so by now any virus on those test kits would have been inactivated. If we wish, we can sterilize them with cheap UV sterilizers.

JoseRaji:
Brazil is way hotter than Russia. Brazil has 22.3K cases (20.8K active), and Russia has 15.7K cases (14.3K active)... What's strategy is Russia using?

I read an article that said Russia has seen a massive spike in “flu” cases and deaths. They are under-reporting theIr Coronavirus situation. Brazil is warm but not hot right now. Weather forecast for today in their capital is 16°C and 26°C in their capital.

I’m not saying that a hot country cannot be ravaged by the Coronavirus; hot countries have a natural advantage, which can be exploited or wasted.

If everyone is doing their best to save money, money will be more difficult to make. This causes a deflationary spiral, which intensifies recessions.

We've been told that it's difficult to do massive testing for the Coronavirus Disease in Nigeria. That we don't have the trained workers, technology, and money to do it like South Korea. This is why we've only conducted 5,000 tests in a country with a population of 195.9 million. This got me thinking about other African countries:

South Africa, with a population of 57.78 million, has conducted 80,085 tests.
Ghana, with a population of 29.77 million, has conducted 37,954 tests.
Egypt, with a population of 98.42 million, has conducted 25,000 tests.

Also, Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is 9th in the list of African countries which have conducted the most tests. We are also 26th in the list of African countries that have conducted the most tests relative to the size of their population. Should we be conducting way more tests?

We want to distribute masks to help protect people from the disease but thanks to the lockdown it seems people need food more than masks.

I wonder if the suspicion of COVID-19 reduced the quality of the care she received.

sapientia:
Don't we all? At the bolded
Even with clear facts.
Its called self denial.
Am at my final stage before acceptance.

I'm cautiously optimistic because:
a) We are "blessed" with a climate that is always hot except for a few cloudy days. Not warm, but hot. This slows but doesn't stop the virus.
b) Stories of people who died from the disease; gasping for breath, etc, are still relatively scarce, unlike countries like Italy and Spain.

I'm generally optimistic because I think Coronavirus is a solved problem. South Korea solved it. You test everyone who shows symptoms. Separate the ones who test positive and start testing their contacts too. Rinse and repeat. Also, put a high quality mask on every face and enforce hand hygiene and social distancing everywhere. Also, test or quarantine anyone who comes into the country. It's not rocket science. It's been done. They did it in a cold country without shutting down their economy. They're even making money from Coronavirus by selling test kits.

geezynoni:
I know someone who contracted the virus in ogun state and currently at an Isolation centre

Please share the story

9jaRealist:
The rate of infection has not really moved much...
Which is significant, given that many more people are being tested daily.
>

This would suggest that the situation isn’t so bad, but not testing people with symptoms who have no travel history and no connection to confirmed cases can achieve the same effect. Contacts of confirmed cases are way less likely to test positive than people with symptoms. I am cautiously optimistic that true situation is not disastrous, but just very bad.

Does anyone know if they have started testing people with symptoms who have no travel history and no direct connection to a confirmed case?

noblealuu:
Boris Johnson had the best of PPE while going about his business in the fight against CoVid19 and still caught it. Now, how do you justify this?

No he didn't. Boris Johnson and most Westerners believed the WHO's lie that only health workers needed to wear face-masks and other PPE.