Brace yourselves for bad news, Kagwe tells Kenyans as corona cases hit 172

The government has asked Kenyans to brace themselves for 'bad news' as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread in the country.

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on Tuesday said measures that have been put in place by the government are not going to stop the disease abruptly.

According to Kagwe, though Kenya has been getting mild infections, the time has come for all citizens to mentally prepare for the worst.

“Fellow Kenyans, let us brace ourselves for bad news, let us prepare for the worst. We must brace ourselves and be ready mentally to face a situation we have never faced before," he said.

"We can no longer run away from the disease. It is an invisible enemy that it is here with us and if we allowed ourselves to play chasing games with it, it will be difficult for us as a nation to catch up with it.”

The CS said Kenyans must prepare to face an 'insurmountable situation'.

"We are sailing towards a massive storm and I can assure you quarantine facilities are mentally straining and not convenient at all,” he added.

Kagwe's statement comes on the day he reported 14 new Covid-19 cases bringing the country's total tally to 172.

This was out of 696 samples tested within the last 24 hours.

Out of the 14, Kagwe said 12 are Kenyans while two are foreign nationals.

So far about 5,000 people have been tested and out of the 1,928 contacts that have been under monitoring, 1,416 have been discharged while the rest under follow up.

Going forward Kagwe said the Ministry is embarking on rapid testing of all health workers and medical staff.

This he said will be extended to all those in private hospitals and facilities holding quarantined persons.

“We have acquired new reagents to automatically test as opposed to the manual process. This should now enhance our testing capacity,”  he said.

Kagwe said the testing of the medical staff will play a key role in avoiding the passage of the virus to patients.

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