The Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Prof. Abiodun Otegbayo, said on Tuesday that the number of tests being carried out for COVID-19 in the state was grossly inadequate due to scarcity of required resources for the exercise.
The CMD made the disclosure during the visit of a medical team from the National Disease Control Centre, led by Dr. Chikwe Ikekweazu, and the team of World Health Organisation, led by Dr Fiona Braka, to the hospital.
Otegbayo requested the assistance of the federal and the state governments in the area of infrastructure supply, said testing was critical in the fight against the virus.
Otegbayo, who earlier tested positive for COVID-19, said, one of the ways of combating the spread of the virus was massive testing.
Responding to an allegation by a top official of Oyo State that UCH accounts for 44per cent of COVID-19 cases in the state, Otegbayo said,
“We have laboratory that tests within this territory and that is why as a knowledge-based medical institute, many people are bound to come here for tests. If you go to Saki, Sepeteri, Ogbomoso, Oyo and the rest and you go and screen them, you will discover how many cases that you will see.
“But because UCH is a relatively small community, and we are testing, much attention is on us.
“Generally in Oyo State now, testing is not enough. Fortunately, last week or so, Governor Seyi Makinde opened a working centre at Adamasingba in Ibadan here. They said they want to test 10,000, but to my knowledge, the number tested is so few and I heard there are some challenges concerning it.
“That is because they are now testing people, they are picking more. You can now imagine the whole of Oyo State where every town, every village is being tested, then you will see the magnitude of the problem.
“The problem of testing is not limited to us as an institution. You will note that in Lagos State, the Federal Government voted billions of naira to Lagos State to tackle this COVID-19. I heard that in Oyo State, they have not received any allocation for such thing and the government of Oyo State is just trying with its resources to put the laboratory and testing kits in place. I can tell you without any doubt that we have not received any money from government, either federal, local or state to prosecute this war against COVID-19. And our IGR already is over-stretched.
On the allegation that he was healed of the virus by eating Amala and Ewedu soup, the CMD said the publication misrepresented him.
He said,
“I ate a lot of things. I took Amala Gbegiri and Ewedu. Will I now recommend to a person that because I took Amala, Gbegiri and Ewedu that made me to test negative? I never said that.”
