More than 5,000 health workers from 22 counties will be tested for Covid-19 to ensure they are safe while handling patients.
The frontline health workers are drawn from counties in Rift Valley, Western and parts of Nyanza. The tests will be carried out at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH).
MTRH has the capacity to conduct 960 tests every eight hours. Hospital CEO Wilson Aruasa said on Tuesday they are also partnering with counties in Rift Valley and Western regions to test truck drivers using the Nakuru-Eldoret-Malaba highway to stop the spread of the virus.
This is after several truck drivers in Kenya and Uganda tested positive for the virus. Most truck drivers stop or spend the night in market centres and towns along the highway.
Also to undergo testing are hotel workers to facilitate the reopening of restaurants.
“We have the capacity to test 960 samples every eight hours and we have embarked on the testing drivers as directed by the government,” Dr Aruasa said.
Meanwhile, Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago has urged the government to increase financial support to local universities to enable them to research on Covid-19 along with new innovations in medicine.
Mandago said Kenya and other African countries largely rely on imports, thus killing the local manufacturing sector.
He said since Covid-19 has disrupted importation, it is necessary for local researchers to be empowered to do more, especially in medicine.
“We must encourage local industries to engage in the production of what can be made locally," Mandago said.
Public health officers in Eldoret have also been ordered to crack down on traders hawking masks in unhygienic conditions.
Mandago said most of those selling masks do not observe cleanliness.
Edited by A.N
