By our reporter| The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday reiterated that it does not provide results of COVID-19 tests to individuals, but to states.
The health agency made the clarificatio following the complain of chairman of DAAR Communications Plc, Raymond Dokpesi that he has not seen the results of his coronavirus tests even after being discharged from the hospital after contracting the deadly virus.
Dokpesi had said: “Whilst I can attest to my improvement in physical health and wellbeing, I regret to say that since my initial test to date, I have never seen any documentary evidence of any test result.
“I take it in trust and good faith that the NCDC pronounced me COVID-19 positive and that they have now also pronounced me COVID-negative. I will appreciate it if the documentary records of the various tests on me and members of my family are made available for our medical records.
According to him, such “lapses” could make patients to lose confidence in public healthcare providers.
But in apparent response to Dokpsi’s complain and indeed that of others in similar situstion, the NCDC in a tweet on its verified twitter handle, said it only coordinates communication of test results between its laboratories and states.
The tweet read, “It is important to emphasise that the NCDC does not provide results to individuals.”
“Our role as the national public health institute is to coordinate the communication of results between testing laboratories and States, who then communicate with individuals.”
Dopkesi’s case mirrows that of Mrs Susan Okpe, the Benue index COVID-19.
Mrs Okpe, a British Nigerian returnee still in isolation centre in Abuja for more than a month now also claimed she is yet to see any of the tests carried out on her by the NCDC and made several video recordings explaining her plight to Nigerians.
She said this in one of her video messages, “Hi, everybody, this is Susan Idoko Okpe, née Lawani. I am pleading with everybody to please tell Nigerian government to let me go. This is my 16th day of incarceration. What have I done, what have I done? Benue state lied on me that I have COVID-19…
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