The Rivers State Government has called on the Federal Government to establish a federal laboratory centre in the state to handle coronavirus testing.
The state Commissioner of Health, Prof. Princewill Chike made this known in a meeting with the NCDC DG and his team, at Government House Port Harcourt on Sunday.
The NCDC Director General and his team were in the state to engage with the Rivers State Public Health team to consolidate on the successes recorded on the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Prof Chike said, though the state is about setting up its own laboratory, the state being the oil and Gas hub of Nigeria needs a functional federal laboratory centre to carryout testing.
He noted that in no time, the government will acquire a new PCR machine as the other two PCR machines owned by state government at the Rivers state University Teaching Hospital were calibrated for HIV and Yellow fever.
Prof Princewill further, declared Rivers State coronavirus free for now as the state discharged its second index case of the virus few days ago.
