Testing to focus on symptomatic cases as 12 die

In a new strategy,Covid-19 testing will now focus on symptomatic cases, except where there are clusters and mass testing is necessary.

The Health Ministry admitted on Monday it faces a backlog of samples after administering just 1,205 tests in a day, of which 189 people were confirmed positive.

This brings to 10,294 the number of those who have tested positive from a total  216,242 tests.

“We had a challenge with our server because of power outages. We are holding samples we have not tested in the last 24 hours and these things happen,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said on Monday.

The country also recorded the highest number of daily fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths to 197, the CS announced.

All the deaths are from Nairobi county - nine from hospitals, while the three died at home.  

Speaking during the daily briefing, head of Public Health Dr Francis Kuria said because testing is expensive, the strategy has changed and will now be targeted.

Henceforth, those who are sick and symptomatic will have to call 719 , then a rapid response team will be dispatched to their locations.

The testing will be done on site.

On Monday, the ministry flagged off Sh200 million vehicles that will help in contact tracing, surveillance and  responding to community alerts.

They will be used by the Covid-19 Health Emergency Response Project in 13 counties.

Kagwe said transport has been a challenge especially in rural areas where the government aims to provide quality healthcare.

“These vehicles will boost contact tracing and surveillance as we work to curtail the spread of the virus," the CS said.

The counties to get vehicles are Nairobi, one for Kenyatta National Hospital and the other for Nairobi Metropolitan Services. Others are Mombasa, Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos, Nyeri, Migori, Busia, Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Taita Taveta, Elgeyo Marakwet and Kisii.

“Some people are jumping from hospital to hospital seeking testing. Our new strategy is going to be more syndromic and we are starting mainly with those who are symptomatic. This will be coming from alerts we will be receiving from the communities,” Kuria said.

“We don’t want individuals jumping from homes to every other hospital, that is spreading the  infection even further.”

Priority will also be given to symptomatic healthcare workers as they have high risk to exposure.

Kuria said mass testing will on where there is a cluster of cases, and where possible, the area will be ring-fenced to stop further spread of the virus.

This week KNH stopped testing at the Mbagathi Infectious Unit. Hospital CEO  Evanson Kamuri said the facility now will be dedicated to sick patients only.

The facility had been divided, handling both sick individuals and suspected cases.

“The counties have systems to sort out the patients. We only want to leave the facility for the very sick and that’s why we have stopped triaging within the facility because we don’t want to expose most people especially as suspects,” Kamuri said.

The CEO said testing is going on at KNH next to Clinic 66, but with preference to test symptomatic people first.

“We don’t wang people to come to the hospital. We want the hospitals to be left only for the sick people because when we mix the symptomatic and the asymptomatic, the exposure becomes more," Kamuri said.

Nairobi accounted for the highest number of cases with 147, followed by Kiambu with 20, Machakos 11, Kajiado five and Mombasa two. Uasin Gishu, Kisumu, Laikipia and Kericho recorded one case each.

Of the cases, 106 are males and 83 are females; the youngest is five years old, the oldest is age 71.

Sixty-five patients were discharged from hospitals, bringing to 2,946 the number of recoveries countrywide.

(Edited by V. Graham)