Lawyer now says 7, not 48 members of his family tested positive for virus

A Migori family and health officials have clarified only seven of their members tested positive for Covid 19, and not 48 as reported earlier.

On Wednesday, a burial for one of the family members, Moses Osoro Ogolla, 61, who succumbed to the virus was held.

Osoro is the brother of Gordon Ogolla, a Nakuru based lawyer and a former speaker of Migori assembly and 2017 senator aspirant.

Migori Health executive Isca Oluoch said officials took samples of 48 patients who came into contact with Ogolla’s matriarch and mother aged 80 years old, and not tested positive.

“Out of the 48 samples, 14 turned positive and of the 14 only seven are from one family,” she said.

She termed earlier reports as misleading and meant to cause unnecessary panic among locals.

On Wednesday during the daily coronavirus briefing, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe did not deny the reports and said the spread of the virus in the Migori family was triggered by a member who had travelled from Nairobi.

The figure of 48 was raised after Ogolla, through social media said that his entire family and clan had tested positive of the virus, giving the number at 48.

“Everyone who came into contact with my mum, including my stepmother, daughters-in-law, the grandchildren, cousins and farmhands have tested positive,” read part of his WhatsApp message.

Ogolla, and the family during the low key funeral which was shunned by members of the family denied the earlier figure.

Family sources said a brother who had recently travelled from Nairobi could have caused the infection.

“Mum was sick and we rushed her to St. Joseph Mission Hospital for treatment, she was with the deceased,” a family member said.

At the hospital her samples were taken and they turned positive where she was rushed to Nairobi to be placed in the Intensive Care Unit at a private hospital.

“While she was being rushed to Nairobi, the son succumbed. The mother is in stable condition,” the family member said.

There has been panic over more infections with several medics at the Migori hospital and patients who came into contact with the Ogollas placed under close supervision.