Nakuru governor Lee Kinyanjui has asked the government and other players in the health sector to have better equipped COVID-19 testing kits to identify the exact variant.
He said the different variants have different characteristics and therefore it is important for the National Government and other players to also seek more improvised testing equipment.
In a press statement released by his communication team on Saturday, the governor observed that some of the patients who have turned positive, were exhibiting different symptoms than the usual high temperature among others hence the need to check the handling.
He also called for increased public awareness for signs and symptoms of the different COVID-19 variants in the country.
“The current Corona-virus testing in the country only reveals whether one is positive or negative and not the variant one has,” he said.
Kinyanjui said that this was limiting the information available to medics for a more precise treatment to the patient.
The governor is concerned on the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Nakuru county especially because it is among the five counties under lockdown.
The county reported 148 positive cases in 24 hours bringing the number of total confirmed cases to 7026 as of April 2.
Nakuru recorded three deaths from COVID-19 bringing fatalities from the disease from the pandemic hit in March last year to 179.
Meanwhile, Nakuru has been nominated for a prestigious national award for improving the quality of healthcare services in the region.
Quality Healthcare Kenyan Awards honours excellence and celebrates innovation by individuals and organisations in the sector.
Nakuru is competing against Mombasa and Tharaka Nithi for the County with Best Managed Healthcare category award.
County Executive Committee Member for Health, Gichuki Kariuki said the award is a recognition of the County's heavy investment in quality healthcare delivery.
He was optimistic that Nakuru County would win the award citing infrastructural and human resource capacity investment.
"The award gives us more impetus to perform even better so that we can satisfy our clients even more," he said.
Gichuki also said the nomination was an indicator to all residents and people beyond Nakuru that the county was committed to better health service delivery.
The award ceremony will be held virtually on World Health Day 2021, April 07 due to the COVID-19 pandemic threats.
The Best Managed Health Care Award was won by Makueni County in 2019 which beat Kisumu and Tharaka Nithi counties respectively.
