How Oyo plans to test 2000 people with COVID-19 drive-through testing center

The Oyo State Government has launched the COVID-19 Drive/Walk-Through Testing center at the Adamasingba Stadium in Ibadan aimed at supporting measures already put in place to control the spread of the virus.

Governor Seyi Makinde during the launch of the center on Tuesday said the 2000 test kits that will be used at the center were donated by the Citizen for Citizen Initiative led by Mrs Ibukun Awosika, while LifeBank Nigeria, a healthcare technology company is collaborating with the state government to conduct the tests..

Makinde said 2,000 people would be tested during the exercise that would last for two weeks and said the aspiration of his government was to test up to 10,000 people within the shortest possible time.

Oyo presently has 11 confirmed cases and also tracing other suspected cases who have had contact with those infected. As at 11:00 pm on Tuesday April 14, there are 373 confirmed cases in Nigeria according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC). The increase in confirmed cases has made the need for a drive-through testing center become necessary to speed up the process of testing suspected cases.

In other countries – Korea and the United Arab Emirates – where the drive-through screening system has been put in place, it has enabled people to grab quicker COVID-19 results in the bid to stay safe.

“Experts have opined that the best place to start in solving our peculiar problems is by ramping up our testing capabilities,” Makinde said.

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“Indeed, with social distancing though proving to be the most effective way of checking community spread, and the fact that people can have COVID-19 and be asymptomatic, large-scale testing will help us determine where and when targeted lockdowns are necessary.”

Generally, the process of screening at a drive-through testing center involves five steps – registration, examination, specimen collection, instructions, and exit. According to health experts, the entire process takes about 10 minutes for one person without leaving the car and it helps to increase the number of testing per day as well as develop the ability to prevent cross-infections between testees while they are waiting for the test. This is why the center is always set up in a large space under and open tent to prevent close contacts between testees.