NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 19 – Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret and the Kenyatta National Hospital have now been equipped to test for COVID-19.
Health Ministry’s Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Mercy Mwangangi on Sunday said the two centers have been conducting tests in the last few days and are complementing the efforts of the existing test centers.
The Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital will cover 22 counties whose samples had to be transported to far-flung testing centers, increasing the turnaround time for results.
“I am glad to announce that the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret and KNH here in Nairobi are now testing for COVID-19 disease,” she said.
The addition of the two coronavirus testing facilities comes at a time when the Ministry of Health is gearing up for the first phase of mass testing of Kenyans with Nairobi, Mombasa, Mandera and Siaya counties on the priority list.
“In the last few days, very few cases are emanating from our original Quarantine centers. It is the local transmissions that worry us the most, and because we do not know, and cannot know who is infected,” said Mwangangi at a news conference where she announced eight new positive cases, raising the total number of infected people in the country to 270.
On Friday a consignment of supplies including masks, tubes, and other medical equipment from China arrived in the country for COVID-19 mass testing.
While receiving the consignment, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the additional kits will allow the government to equip health workers with the necessary protective gear to handle COVID-19 patients.
14 people have so far succumbed to the virus in Kenya, with the global death toll reported at over 162,032 by April 19, with 2.3 million people infected.
“One of the things we are trying to do, is to optimize the capacity of the kits available. We have therefore been working flat out to enhance the capacity through training of manpower to undertake these tests. A lot more interventions in this regard will be announced in the coming days,” said CS Kagwe.
