Nigeria Makes Significant Progress In Fight Against COVID-19 With New Test Kit

• New test kit is faster than the PCR which takes hours to produce results

Nigeria appears to have made a significant breakthrough in its efforts to curtail the spread of  COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The federal government on Tuesday disclosed that it has developed a test kit — SARS-COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay (SIMA) — that let people know their COVID-19 status within 40 minutes.

The minister of state for health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, made the disclosure at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing.

Mamora said the kit was developed by the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR).

Mamora noted that the test kit is faster and effective than the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), which is currently the only source of testing in the country; the PCR test takes hours to produce results.

“It is the SARS-COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay (SIMA) which can be performed by low skilled personnel with minimum training. This test which is ten times cheaper than the PCR can be deployed for point-of-care detection and surveillance,” he said.

On the need to improve the country’s health sector in the event of future outbreaks, Mamora said there are plans to ensure that all states have at least one infectious disease centre.

“Our goal is to have at least one standard infectious disease centre in every state. We shall therefore work with states to establish purpose-built treatment centres that will ensure we are better prepared for infectious disease outbreaks in the country,” he said.