Kenya: Four More Test Positive for COVID-19

Four more people have tested positive for coronavirus bringing the total number of confirmed positive cases to 42.

During a briefing on Sunday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said of the four, one is a Kenyan, one American, one Cameroonian and one a Burkinabé.

Mr Kagwe said three of the cases were based in Nairobi and one in Mombasa. The CS said of the 42 cases, 24 are male while 18 are females. Nairobi leads with 31 cases followed by Kilifi (six), Mombasa (Three) and Kwale and Kajiado on each.

QUARANTINE

He said that mass testing has begun on those who travelled into the country from last Sunday. Those currently on mandatory quarantine are 2,050 people.

“Today our medical teams have embarked on mass testing for all those persons who arrived in the country last week, and are currently under mandatory quarantine in various designated hotels and Government facilities. These tests are based on dates of arrival, it is important that suspects remain in quarantine for the full duration,” he said.

Several people who arrived in the country on Sunday and Monday have, however, said that as of Sunday they have not been tested for the virus.

One of them, a woman, said only their temperatures were taken and there has been no further communication on when testing will begin.

“We have not seen those testing that the CS is announcing in the news. So far we have been asked to pay our bills daily and when we do not get the money to them they disable our key cards,” she said.

CS Kagwe warned that the country’s health facilities could be overrun by the demand and that the World Bank has donated 250 ventilators to the country.

VENTILATORS

“There’s a shortage around the world when it comes to ventilators and we are making every effort to secure as many as possible

“Next week we will be ready to manufacture some protective gears and we are also going to increase at least 1000 ICU beds on top of what we had before,” he said.

“The total number of close contacts that we are monitoring stands at 1,426. Out of this number, 215 have been discharged after completing the mandatory 14 day follow-up period,” he said.

The CS added that there are 18 individuals at Mbagathi Hospital awaiting test results and that so far they have tested 877 persons for the virus.

Meanwhile, ministers responsible for Health and East African Community dockets have directed all partner states to continue implementing mandatory quarantine for 14 days for all travellers to the region. They should avoid imported cases by implementing strict screening procedures at all border points.

In a joint statement, the ministers said that all partner states should implement 100 per cent exit and entry screenings by applying the multilayer mechanism to avoid some loopholes, such as transit passengers.

They further resolved to facilitate free movements of goods and services in the region and directed all partner States to ensure that vehicles carrying goods have no more than crew members per vehicle to facilitate smooth border crossing in the region.