Last Saturday's brief quarantine of five wildlife trust employees at Makindu sub-county hospital had nothing to do with Covid-19 (coronavirus), Makueni Health executive Andrew Mulwa has said.
The five, who are based in Mutomo, were brought to the health facility after a colleague died of meningitis. They were on routine medical check-up on the request of the trust management, Dr Mulwa said in a statement released on Sunday.
He clarified that they were not from a Chinese construction company working on the Kibwezi-Kitui road.
Weekend media reports said the five were quarantined on suspicion that they had coronavirus.
"This was a precautionary visit as one of their colleagues had passed on in Mutomo while on treatment for meningitis. The manager of the trust asked that they be examined in Makindu to rule out meningitis," the statement said.
"It’s not true that the clients were from a Chinese construction company or had any contact with Chinese nationals as alleged in the media," Mulwa said.
Only one of the five had malaria for which he was treated. The rest were in good health.
On Saturday, medics at the Makindu hospital fled when the five were brought in by police officers accompanied by some Chinese in face masks.
Services at the facility were paralysed for hours.