Chart of the week: Nigeria is not testing enough

Around the world, countries are beginning to reopen their economies as the rate of new infections from COVID-19 reduces. Two critical factors required for reopening are rigorous testing and contact tracing. It is in the first regard that Nigeria has failed woefully. Nigeria is not testing anywhere close to the other countries, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of the population. So in reality, Nigeria’s curve could be anything. Anecdotal information indicates that it is not the linear curve shown below. Our observation in the field is that most Nigerians have moved on from COVID-19 and resumed a lot of their day to day activities. Many are still taking basic precautions, but many others now move around without even basic protections such as face masks in public places. The government did not use the lockdown period to do anything radically different – testing is still dismal at about 80,000 samples tested as at Monday, 8 June 2020.