• CS Kagwe has also ordered impromptu inspection visits to quarantine facilities by Health ministry bosses on a 24-hour basis.
• Some 617 individuals are yet to be tested, a situation that presents possibilities of more positive tests.
Image: COURTESY
Persons in compulsory quarantine facilities where positive tests for Covid-19 were detected will spend another 14 days at the said premises.
The Health ministry communicated the extension in a memo to heads of directorates and those in charge of the quarantine sites.
Kenya has so far recorded 122 positive Covid-19 cases, largely from the quarantine facilities that were set up at various institutions and hotels for persons who arrived from abroad.
Director General Patrick Amoth said they have observed that those quarantined in the said sites had close contacts and interactions with some of those who tested positive for the virus.
He added that the lot has not maintained optimal social distance, prescribed hygiene measures, and could have contracted the virus.
“It is therefore impossible to determine whether those who were quarantined in the facilities are actually safe to be released into the general population,” Amoth said.
He directed that the quarantined persons maintain social distance, hygiene measures, and limit interactions during the period after which a repeat testing for Covid19 will be undertaken.
“All our support services will be maintained and staff will be available for any inquiries and support as before,” the DG said in the April 3 memo.
This may spell doom for those who hoped to go home after the mass testing that was conducted at the facilities this week.
Quarantined persons have lamented the tough conditions at some of the facilities, some of which they lament to be inhabitable.
On Friday, the country confirmed 12 positive tests, persons who have already been moved to isolation centres at various health facilities.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, in a statement read on his behalf by CAS Mercy Mwangangi, said contact tracing has commenced.
At least 1,433 samples have been drawn from the individuals currently in quarantine facilities.
Some 617 individuals are yet to be tested, a situation that presents possibilities of more positive tests – add to those who contract the disease at quarantine facilities.
Health officers manning the premises are under strict instructions to, going forward, ensure there is compliance among the quarantined persons.
The ministry warns that those officers who will be found to have abandoned the quarantine sites under their jurisdiction will be sacked.
“This will be without further reference to the Human Resource Regulations pursuant to invoking of the Public Health Act,” a memo by Pacifica Onyancha, Director of Medical Services – Prevention and Promotive Health, reads.
She said CS Kagwe has also ordered impromptu inspection visits to quarantine facilities by Health ministry bosses on a 24-hour basis.