Abia Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Osuji, says the major problem confronting the fight against COVID-19 in the state is people’s disbelief that the virus is real.

Osuji made the observation with the Newsmen in Umuahia on Friday.

The commissioner regretted that the people rather believed that the state government was using it to collect money from the Federal Government or donor agencies.

“But it is not true. The truth is that COVID-19 is real and it has come to stay with us. So we have to be extremely careful in its containment,” he said.

He said that a lot of people were being tested now following the installation of the COVID-19 test laboratory in the state.

The commissioner said that four testing machines had already been installed, while 16 more would be installed by next week.

Newsmen reports that the machines were installed during the week at the General Hospital, Amarachara, one of the testing centres in the state.

“Since we have a testing centre, the other one will be ready by next week at Aba, we can now take samples anyhow and test anyhow and collect our results immediately,” he said.

Osuji ruled out the possibility of random testing as suggested by some people, saying that patients had to be examined before the sample collection.

“We are having cases now in the state because we are testing a lot of people now,’’ he said.

 

NAN