Adedokun Waliyu 
The Federal government has acquired necessary reagents to test for suspected cases of the novel Coronavirus in Nigeria, as three laboratories has been set up across the country to test suspected patients for the disease.
Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this at the briefing after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the state house, noting that the designated laboratories have been set up in Lagos, Abuja and Irrua in Edo state to handle such tests.
He said, “Since about eight days ago, we obtained the reagents necessary; we have the machines; they are called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines which we have here for molecular diagnostics; but we didn’t have the reagents.
“Because for every pathogen, you have a specific pathogen that you will use to detect it and that one for Coronavirus being a new disease was not very much available but we acquired it about eight days ago.
The minister however assured that no case of the virus has been detected in the country and Africa at large.
