The Council of Governors has raised the alarm over lack of testing kits even as Covid-19 positivity rate continues to rise in Kisumu.
CoG Health committee chair Anyang' Nyong'o, who is the Kisumu governor, said testing across all counties had slowed down because of a lack of kits.
He said positivity as reported by the Ministry of Health in the Daily Situational Report is at 9.6 per cent from a sample of 2,515 individuals tested.
“We, however, note that the decrease of the positivity rate is a result of lack of testing kits in the country,” he said.
“As county governments, we have engaged the Ministry of Health to provide testing kits to the counties to ensure proper documentation of the magnitude of the disease within the communities and proper reporting of the factual situation which will then lead to proper response measures."
He said the situation has posed a big challenge as the virus spreads rapidly and could overstretch county health facilities.
Nyong'o said the rise in infection is reflected in the county’s weekly positivity rate. As of April 16, positivity stood at 15.7 per cent, 6.2 more than the preceding week.
Nyong'o said as of April 16, 2,866 cases had been cumulatively confirmed in Kisumu, out of which 161 were diagnosed in the preceding seven days. So far, this translated into 29 cases daily on average for April.
Confirmed cases across subcounties from March 8 to April 16 were Kisumu Central 571, Nyando 17, Kisumu West 16, Kisumu East 18, Muhoroni one, Seme six and Nyakach six.
This showed the county’s preventive behavioural patterns in Kisumu Central need focus and calls for continued scale-up of containment measures and rethinking of residents' personal behaviours concerning Covid, Nyong'o said.
Currently, 68 cases are in isolation, 28 of whom are in public and private isolation facilities and the rest in home-based isolation.
“I am happy to report that our isolation capacity is still robust and working under capacity. We cannot, however, sit pretty as the infection escalates within the region, with some facilities in various counties compromised.”
He said the mortality rate has also been recording an upward trajectory.
“So far, we have cumulatively recorded 87 mortalities to date, with six deaths reported in the last week alone,” he said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
