The government will from Friday start testing for coronavirus thousands of travellers who have arrived in the country since Monday.
All the travellers have been quarantined in 59 facilities in Nairobi to limit the spread of the virus in the country.
The Ministry of Health has communicated with all the persons to prepare for tests.
“The Ministry of Health officials were here. And they called us to tell us that they are coming for medical examination tomorrow,” Alex Mwangi said.
Mwangi is quarantined at the Comfort Hotel.
“We suffered at KMTC. We were forced to share washrooms and sleep on beds full of bedbugs,” he said.
He added that they are now fine after being transferred to the hotel.
Several others were on Thursday taken to Nairobi School for quarantine after they failed to pay for hotels set aside by the state.
They said the facilities were beyond their means.
“We are waiting for the National Youth Service bus to be taken to Nairobi School where we will spend the remaining nine days,” Leonard, who has stayed at Pride Inn Hotel since Tuesday said.
“I can’t afford to pay Sh9,000 each day for 14 days at Pride Inn Hotel,” he said.
The government also took several people with chronic ailments to hospital.
They included a 71-year-old Francis Thuo who came from India after spinal surgery.
The elderly man has been sleeping on the first floor at the Pride Inn Hotel after being unable to pay for accommodation.
He couldn’t eat, shower, or take medication after he failed to raise Sh126,000 for the 14 days of quarantine.
“He has been in a lot of pain sleeping on the first floor of the hotel. Today an ambulance came for him so that he can be treated at the Kenyatta University Hospital,” his friends told the Star.
Some of the facilities where people are being held are the Kenya Medical Training College, Karat Hotel, Four Point Sheraton Hotel, KCB Leadership Centre, Mash Park Hotel and Concord Hotel.
(edited by o. owino)
