Abia opens Coronavirus sample collection at IDH Aba

June 29, 2020

By Ijendu Iheaka

Abia government has begun Coronavirus infection test sample collection at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) at Alex Onyeador Close off Industry road, Aba for residents in the city.

Abia government had on June 15 declared, Aba, the commercial nerve centre of the state the COVID-19 epicenter of Abia.

Mrs Happiness Akpulonu, Acting Coordinator, Aba COVID-19 Sample Collection Centre  disclosed this in an interview with our Correspondent in her office on Monday.

 She said that the test which begun at the beginning of June 2020 was initiated to reduced the stress of residents in Aba going to Umuahia to get tested.

“We started collection of samples at the beginning of June and we have collected close to 100 samples.

“I do not know how many that have tested positive from the samples we collected because what we do here is basically to collect the samples and then transport them to the virology laboratory.

“Any other thing concerning the results goes to the Incident Manager; it is not for us.

“People in Aba are really coming out to get tested especially those who had contact with positive cases or suspected positive cases; people who are not positive do come for tests also”, she said.

She said people experiencing symptoms like COVID-19, call NCDC office line through which they are directed to come there if they are within Aba and its environs to lessen the stress of going to Umuahia.

Akpulonu lamented that Aba residents are die-hard people, many of who insist that COVID-19 does not exist in Aba even in the face of the community spread of the disease.

“But I want Aba residents to know that COVID-19 exists and it is actually happening now. 

“And now in this period that we have community transmission where people who are carriers may not show the symptoms.

“It is advisable for everybody to stay on the safe side and do those things that could prevent one from contacting Coronavirus”, she said.

Akpulonu said the tests are free for everybody stressing that the tests are done with kits using swab sticks while expressing hope that the Centre may get Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine later.