Highest ever cases in a day pushes Kenya back to drawing board

National Public health specialists preparing testing kits for mass testing in Eastleigh. [Wilberforce Okwiri/Standard]

The government has lamented the low turnout for the free Covid-19 tests as it registered 30 new cases, the highest number so far reported in a day.

This high number, that brings the total cases to 465 has now taken the government back to the drawing board to reconsider some of the measures in place.

Measures under reconsideration include the plan to re-open restaurants and the operation of public service vehicles (PSVs), which are now required to ferry half their capacity to adhere to social distancing requirements.

Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman said the government is disturbed by the casual manner Kenyans are conducting business, noting that while some restaurants are operating past the curfew hours, matatus are carrying more than they should.

“The government will assess and determine whether these measures should continue or review them if need be,” he said.

Already, the provision that persons who contravene curfew laws be put on mandatory quarantine in government facilities at their own cost has been reviewed by the National Emergency Response Committee (Nerc).

Curfew breakers, said Aman, will now be held in special holding places provided by the National Police Service. “These holding places should meet the social distancing requirement,” he said.

Aman, who gave the daily Covid-19 update yesterday, reported 30 new cases out of a sample of 883. Of the 30, 19 cases are from Mombasa, eight are from Nairobi, two are from Bungoma and one in Kitui.

Of the cases in Nairobi, two are from Kawangware, a hotspot in the city where mass testing was launched on Friday.

Isolated patients

Dr Aman lamented that very few people are showing up for mass testing yet it is free. Against a target of 2,000 in Kawangware, in the last two days, only 803 presented, he said. In Eastleigh, another hotspot, he said the government was targeting 3,000 but only 494 showed up.

“There are countries where people beg to be tested but their governments will not do so, yet here we do the tests for free and people do not come,” Aman said.

However, the apathy to show up for testing can be linked to the fact that once one tests positive, the government isolates them and have them treated at their own cost. This has not gone down well even with individuals who were quarantined and did positive.

But Aman was quick to defend this move to isolate patients, despite over 90 per cent of them having no symptoms of mild illnesses.

“Many of the people who test positive are asymptomatic, or mild but you need to isolate them so that they do not spread the virus,” he said. “It is important still to go out and get tested.” The mass testing exercise will also be conducted among truck drivers, who are tested before they leave the Port of Mombasa and will be re-tested again after 14 days.

Others to be tested are food handlers who wish to resume work during this period of restricted movement.

The number of recoveries has increased to 167 after 15 more persons tested negative. Death toll has gone up to 24 after two more died.