Kisumu on high alert as five more contract Corona
Health officials in Kisumu county were yesterday on high alert after five people, who had come into contact with those who had tested positive for the deadly Indian variant of Covid-19, tested positive.
It was, however, not immediately established whether they carry the Indian variant.
County Health Executive Boaz Nyunya said the five new cases had been detected from the cluster of people who had been tested after five Indian nationals tested positive for the deadly variant.
“The county of Kisumu continues to be on high alert on the state of the Covid pandemic locally and nationally and even globally.
From our surveillance and contact tracing efforts, we have been able to locate five positive cases,” Nyunya said during a press briefing yesterday.
Consequently, he said the health officials had stepped up surveillance measures to trace everyone who might have been in contact with the five new cases.
Prof Nyunya said the patients have been put in isolation to prevent them from mingling with other people to contain spread of the virus.
He added that the county Health department has put in place measures, among them enhanced surveillance, screening and contact tracing, rapid tests for suspected Covid cases and strict quarantine of all the positive contacts of the individuals in order to control further spread of the deadly virus.
Cases of the new variant of Covid-19 were detected in the country on Wednesday.
Nyunya clarified that the lakeside county had recorded five positive cases of the Indian variant and not eight as earlier reported.
The Health executive urged residents to be extra vigilant in observing the MoH protocols to keep the virus at bay.
Kisumu county, he said, has a total of 3,181 confirmed positive cases of out of 32,300 cumulative tests done. At least 94 people had lost their lives to the disease in the county.
Rapid tests
“We have ensured that rapid tests must be done to all contacts of those who test positive of the virus.
We are also isolating individuals who have been diagnosed or those who have come into contact with the positive cases,” said Nyunya.
Ministry of Health acting Director General Patrick Amoth during the daily Covid-19 briefs on Wednesday said the Indian nationals arrived in the country on Thursday last week to take part in a fertilizer project in Kibos area.
Dr Amoth said the patients were in safe isolation to ensure the variant does not spread.
“The confirmed variant cases were picked up on Thursday last week on arrival in the country before the ban on flights plying Kenya and India took effect.”
Latest statistics indicate that India, which is suffering the world’s worst second wave of Covid-19, recorded another record figure 412,262 cases and 3,980 new deaths, yesterday.
