The government on Monday evening, March 16, announced that it was closely monitoring 17 possible cases of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19)
Addressing the press at the Teleposta Towers in Nairobi, Government Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna, urged the nation to remain calm as they carried out tests on the seventeen individuals.
“We are still awaiting results on the 17 suspected cases and we will be providing daily updates on the same.
A medical practitioner dressed in protective gear at Coronavirus isolation and treatment facility in Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020
Simon Kiragu
kenyagist.com
“We are in the process of doing contact tracing of these new possible cases,” he announced.
He further revealed that of the 17, three were suspected to have contracted the virus while the remaining 14 were currently under quarantine.
In regards to increasing the country’s capacity to handle a worst-case scenario, Oguna disclosed that 35 counties had confirmed to have set up sufficient centres to handle any possible outbreak.
“We have the capacity to do the coronavirus tests in Kenya. We have now expanded capacity to other KEMRI centers in Busia, Kisumu, Kericho, and Kilifi,” he stated
Kenya has 34 points of entry and the government spokesperson reaffirmed to the nation that the government had set up screening stations across all points.
He went on to reiterate that the most effective way to combat the disease was by taking the recommended preventive hygiene measures.
In regards to workplaces that were still fully operational, he advised employers to organise for a fumigation exercise every evening once the employees left for home.
“We are training healthcare workers across 47 Counties to ensure that they have the capacity to test and manage the disease,” he announced.
Col (Rtd) Cyrus Oguna: The first case is the one we are all ware of. The other 2 cases are a result of contact with the first case. We are in the process of contact tracing to find all the others. That is a delicate process pic.twitter.com/IB7aK8KnS9
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) March 16, 2020