• CEC says local cases are rising rapidly and our isolation facilities are filling to capacity.
• Administrator says family members would be taken into quarantine.
Kajiado registered its first death resulting from coronavirus infection at the county referral hospital on Wednesday morning.
Family members of the deceased disclosed that their kin was taken ill on Tuesday with blood pressure-related complications and admitted at Kajiado County Referral Hospital.
Ministry of Health officials had started fumigating the home of the deceased by 11am on Thursday as the body was being awaited. Local security agents watched from a distance.
They said the hospital later disclosed their kin had symptoms of coronavirus.
A senior provincial administrator in Isinya, who requested anonymity, confirmed the man was among the first four cases in Kitengela and would be buried later on Thursday.
The administrator said family members would be taken into quarantine.
“We also have information the deceased had business at the local Kitengela Slaughterhouse, and this is the reason our tracing team has an uphill task in tracing those who got in contact with him before he was admitted on Tuesday,” the administrator said.
But the chairman of the slaughterhouse William Kasio on Thursday said the man was no longer transacting business at the facility.
“That was a long time ago before he was employed when he was supplying meat in Kitengela town. After joining the provincial administration, he left,” Kasio said.
The death comes two days after Kajiado county confirmed four more cases on June 2 and 3, bringing the total infections to 82 in the county.
Health CEC Esther Somoire on June 3 wrote on the county Facebook page that the region had registered 82 infections and are broken into Kajiado North (six), South (three), Central (60) and West (one).
Recoveries so far had reached 14, according to Somoire.
She said all the recoveries were managed at the county referral hospital's Isolation and Treatment Unit.
“However, it is of great concern that local cases are rising rapidly and our isolation facilities are filling to capacity,” she said.
“In the last few weeks we have evacuated truck drivers to Kenyatta University Hospital but our last three days have been a challenge.”
The executive's post said the challenge came about because “no case has been evacuated due to the full occupation of spaces in the national referral isolation and treatment facilities”.
“Residents are, therefore, informed that soon, we may not have adequate facilities to accommodate the rising cases, hence the need to be extra careful to help us control and manage this situation.”
She said there is a clear indication of widespread community transmission in all subcounties and that everyone should treat all people they interact with as potential virus carriers.
Edited by R.Wamochie