Finally, Kogi sets up COVID-19 testing lab

The Kogi state government says it has partnered with the United States Centre for Diseases Control (CDC) to set up a reference molecular laboratory for COVID-19 tests.

Saka Haruna, commissioner for health, who broke the news via a statement on Monday, said the laboratory will be used to attend to residents with symptoms related to COVID-19.

He added that Kogi has established the Confluence Centre for Infectious Diseases in Lokoja, the state capital, saying manpower has been deployed in the facilities.

The laboratory was set up amid the state’s insistence that it has no case of COVID-19 despite the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announcing three cases in Kogi.

It accused the NCDC of falsifying COVID-19 cases in the state.

It also comes 24 hours after Nasir Ajanah, the state chief judge of Kogi state, died at the COVID-19 isolation centre in Gwagwalada, Abuja.

A statement issued on Monday by Kingsley Fanwo, the Kogi commissioner for information, said the state government will organise a 3-day Fidau prayer in honour of the late chief judge.

“The Fidau prayer would hold at the residence of the late Justice Ajanah in the Government Reserved Area (GRA) Lokoja by 8am on Tuesday, 30th June, 2020,” Fanwo said, adding that “the prayers will hold in line with the NCDC protocol of social distancing.”