Covid-19 patient who died didn't have obvious symptoms - Family

The family of the first Kenyan to die of Covid-19 now says he passed screening checks at the airports and didn’t have any symptoms such as coughing, sneezing or fever.

The family of the late Eng. Maurice Barasa Namiinda in a statement on Sunday said he was feeling weak and had lost appetite, so he went to Aga Khan University Hospital on March 19 to check his blood sugar.

“He disclosed to the nurse that he had just arrived in the country. They did not test him for coronavirus because he didn’t have the obvious symptoms,” the family said.

According to the family, Namiinda came into the country on March 18 from Eswatini through South Africa.

When he did the tests, the  results showed that his blood sugar level was high so he was given some medication and told to go back and see a diabetes specialist on  March 24.

“However, his condition kept deteriorating and he was taken back to Aga Khan on Friday, 20th March to see another specialist at the same hospital. He was given medication to treat his diabetes,” read part of the statement.

The family said the deceased had not developed any fever as being purported by the staff at Aga Khan.

“Namiinda started having difficulty breathing on Saturday night and he was rushed back to Aga Khan and was kept in isolation until Sunday when he was admitted into ICU,” the family said.

The family further said the hospital only decided to test for coronavirus after the CT scan showed that the deceased had contracted viral pneumonia.

“Please note that the deceased did disclose his travel history on the first day he went to hospital. He has only been in contact with his immediate family and some medical staff at Aga Khan Hospital,” the statement read.

Several medical staff at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi have been quarantined because they interacted with the 66-year-old man with Covid-19 who died.

"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. 

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.

"This notwithstanding, since this was discovered we took the necessary precautions immediately. The affected clinicians are currently under quarantine for the required 14 days," he said.