All contacts of Covid-19 patients to be put under mandatory quarantine - Kagwe

All contacts of patients who have tested positive for Covid-19 will be put under mandatory quarantine, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has said.

He made the announcement on Saturday, during the daily briefing on the Covid-19 situation.

A total of 1,141 contacts are being traced.

"We are closely monitoring 978 close contacts and we have discharged 163 after the 14-day follow up period,” Kagwe said.

There are seven new cases of Covid-19.

They were all from Nairobi county, pushing the numbers to 28. 

On Friday, Kagwe said Nairobi had the highest number of cases. The number of patients then was 21.

For the new cases, four are Kenyans, two are Congolese and one is Chinese.

The seven tested positive out of 81  samples analysed in 24 hours.

The total positive cases in Kenya are now 38. However, one patient died on Thursday. The man, 66, had a pre-existing condition. He was diabetic.

Several medical staff at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi have been quarantined because they interacted with the man.

The Star learnt the patient initially did not disclose to medics that he had travelled outside Kenya.

He presented himself to the hospital with mild fever and was prescribed medication to take at home.

"We do confirm that a number of our healthcare workers were exposed to a Covid-19 case by virtue of non-disclosure by the patient on their travel history," Dr Majid Twahir, an associate dean and the chief of staff at the hospital, told the Star. 

The patient returned to the hospital after three days when his condition worsened.

This time, he detailed his travel to Southern Africa and was immediately admitted and secluded in a special area.

Tests for coronavirus returned positive results.

Dr Twahir said the staff who interacted with him in the first visit be quarantined 14 days as a precaution. 

He said their exposure was classified into high or low risk and majority of them had low risk exposure.