No active Covid-19 case in Kitui as two patients recover

Kitui no longer has an active Covid-19 case after the two individuals who had tested positive for the virus recovered.

The county chief officer for Health and Sanitation, Richard Muthoka, disclosed on Monday that the two were isolated and treated after they were confirmed positive in March.

One of the two, Kitui Catholic priest Nicholas Maanzo, drew criticism for failing to self-quarantine soon after returning from a one-year study in Ireland. He later developed flu-like symptoms and was rushed to Mbagathi Hospital, Nairobi, where he was tested and isolated. 

The Kitui county disease surveillance team then traced and tested the cleric’s close contacts. His house help was found to have contracted the disease. He was admitted to the isolation and treatment centre at Kenyatta University Hospital. Both of them are now free of the dreadful contagion.

Chief officer Muthoka said additional 31 residents suspected to have come into contact with the duo were tested and found negative.

"In that case, Kitui does not have any active case of the coronavirus,” he concluded.

Muthoka added, however, that 19 people are still quarantined at KMTC campus in Kitui town, awaiting tests to establish their status. 

Fr. Maanzo was released from the Mbagathi Hospital on Good Friday after recovering. At the time, police sources indicated that he would be arraigned for exposing other people to the disease. His action was condemned when, a day after his return from Ireland on March 23, he violated self-quarantine instructions and ventured out of his home on the outskirts of Kitui town.

The man of the cloth was, however, given a seven-day grace period after his discharge from hospital to self-quarantine as the authorities decided his fate.

Kitui Central subcounty police commander Abduba Wako said at the time of his release that he would report back to the Kitui police station after seven days after which the next course of action would be taken. 

(Edited by F'Orieny)