You can run…but not hide, State tells quarantine escapees
Irene Githinji and Barry Silah
The government has ordered people who escaped from quarantine to return to the isolation centres before they are arrested.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe yesterday said Mandera was the first to report cases of individuals who had escaped from quarantine even before the recent Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) incident.
This came even as the government directed that Mandera be added to the list of counties under cessation, owing to escalation of community-based infections.
“Those people should surrender themselves back to the quarantine facilities failure to which they could even be mopped out and taken back, so they should not expose themselves to such possibility,” said Kagwe in his daily update on coronavirus, yesterday.
President Uhuru Kenyatta also yesterday said those who escaped from KMTC will be arrested and forced to complete their isolation days.
“For those that escaped, we will get them and they must finish their quarantine period.
We know you and we will find you, do not think you have won,” said the President during a live radio interview from State House.
Kagwe asked Kenyans to report any individual who was in quarantine and suspected to have escaped, failure to which it could end up a very costly affair.
More recoveries
On the 41st day since coronavirus disease was reported, 707 samples were tested out of which seven tested positive bringing the total number to 303 of confirmed cases.
All seven are Kenyans, six from Mombasa and one from Nairobi and did not have a recent history of travel. Six were from the targeted mass testing and one picked by surveillance teams.
Nine patients have recovered and discharged, to bring the total to 83 the number of recoveries.
Kagwe said WHO has warned that despite the seemingly slow pace of infections in Africa, the number of cases could surge from thousands to 10 million within three to six months.
In Tanzania, the numbers have swollen seven-fold from 32 to 254 within the same period.
Kenyans have been urged to call 1199 if in need of counselling or psychological care.
