THE Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday revealed that many samples sent in by states for testing for COVID-19 bear fictitious names and addresses.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reiterated that asymptomatic people can still transmit the COVID-19 virus.
This is coming as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) yesterday revealed that many samples sent in by states for testing for COVID-19 bear fictitious names and addresses.
WHO, however, said some modelling groups estimate indicates that 40 per cent transmission may be due to asymptomatic cases.
According to the Country Representative of the WHO, Dr. Fiona Braka, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement from the WHO about the risk of transmission from asymptomatic patient.”
“An asymptomatic patient is someone who is infected but never goes on to develop symptoms. This is different from pre-symptomatic, which are people who are infected as well but have not yet developed symptoms.”
“COVID-19 is caused by a new virus and we are still learning about the disease every day. We need more data to understand better the transmission patterns.”
But, the Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, in Abuja, said: “We can vouch for all the results of all the samples that come to us no doubt about that. What we cannot vouch for are things that happen in our country.”
“Sometimes, samples come to us with fictitious names on them. We can’t send our colleagues in DSS to start looking for who owns those names.”
