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Kenya's Ministry of Health Ramps Up Testing to Contain Covid-19

Rael Ombuor

   NAIROBI - Kenya's Ministry of Health will start mass testing of the
   population to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The first phase of
   the testing will prioritize high-density areas such as the slums of
   Nairobi, and high-risk areas such as hospitals and quarantine centers.

   Twenty-nine-year-old Lilian Chao contracted a mild cough less than two
   weeks after doctors confirmed Kenya's first COVID-19 case in Nairobi.

   She thought the cough would go away after a couple of days, but it
   persisted.

   It is only after Chao's close colleague died from the coronavirus that
   Chao suspected her cough might be something worse.

   "It was reported that one of our colleagues who died had COVID-19 and
   we had been in contact with her, together with a friend of mine, who we
   were experiencing the same symptoms. Doctors took us into quarantine,
   when my symptoms went down, I went back to work, we both did. The
   systems got stronger and we were taken for testing. The results came
   back positive," she said.

   Both Chao and her friend are now among dozens held in an isolation unit
   at Coast General Hospital in the city of Mombasa.

   Because of cases like those, Kenya's Ministry of Health announced
   Tuesday that it would start mass testing of the population to contain
   the spread of the virus.

   In Nairobi, Minister of Health Mutahi Kagwe said high-risk clusters
   would be given priority, including slum areas, hotels, hospitals,
   quarantine centers and isolation facilities.

   "But who to test? You have got to move in a very targeted manner in
   order for that testing to be effective. For example, if you know than
   an institution has had one or two individuals who have tested positive,
   it makes sense to say, lets first of all round up this institution and
   test all those workers that have been with that person," he said.

   The government said it has deployed 12,000 testing kits to areas that
   it had identified as high risk.

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