Government to boost Covid-19 testing capacity

The government
is set to boost the coronavirus testing capacity even as the positive numbers
soars to 963.

Health CS
Mutahi Kagwe said 5 testing laboratories will be set in a couple of weeks to
come, to increase the rate of testing.

“We started
with only two testing labs, but at the moment we have about 10 laboratories in
counties and we are looking forward to moving to the northern part of the
country,” said CS Kagwe.

CS Kagwe
added that at the borders, “we had problems with testing but mobile
laboratories are now being deployed at the Namanga border.”

On Tuesday,
the ministry tested 1,933 samples bringing the total number of tests in the
country to 46,984.

Out of the
tests in the last 24 hours, 51 people tested positive bringing the total number
of infections in the country to 963.

32 of these
are male and 19 are female.

A total of
22 more people were discharged, bringing the total number of recoveries to 358.

Meanwhile,
the ministry link the high number of fatalities recorded in Mombasa to household
deaths.

Of the 50
deaths recorded, 15, which represents 30 per cent, were household deaths.

“We have
been explaining that people must not be kept at home, you must leave your
house…if you die at home, what it means is that the rate of infection and the
rate of mortality is going to be a lot higher than had the person been infected
by somebody who is almost asymptomatic,” said CS Kagwe.

He added that,
“So I think we should make it clear that the rising deaths in Mombasa is
essentially people dying at home…and we want to urge that if a person is
unwell, please take them to hospital. Because if they’re unwell and you’re the
one who is looking after them, then chances are that you can yourself die.”