COVID-19: NCDC Reviews Guidelines, To Discharge Patients After Testing Negative Once

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says COVID-19 patients will now be discharged after testing negative once.

Patients should be tested negative twice before being discharged according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to discharge and this has been followed by the NCDC.

Emeka Oguanuo, spokesperson of the NCDC, confirmed the revision to TheCable on Wednesday, saying the agency will soon publish the new guidelines with further details.

Nigeria has so far recorded 4,787 cases of COVID-19 out of which 959 patients have recovered and have been discharged from isolation centres across the states.

But before getting discharged, NCDC initially required that patients must test negative at least twice for their health status to be confirmed.

It is not immediately clear the reason for the revision, but the agency has repeatedly said its response to the pandemic is guided by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendations