Border in the red as 51 more test positive for virus

The Ministry of Health yesterday used statistics to demonstrate the danger lurking along the Kenya-Tanzania border even as the country recorded 51 new cases of coronavirus.

The cases were from a sample of 1,933 tested between Monday and Tuesday, bringing the number in the country to 963.

According to the data, the 775km border has produced a total of 214 persons who have tested positive for the virus, of which 182 are foreigners.

The Namanga border point leads with the highest number of cases at 126, followed by Lunga Lunga with 24, Taveta 23, Loitoktok five and Isebania four.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe noted that the setbacks in managing the disease along the border was due to Tanzania not testing her truck drivers while leaving the country. This is what has informed Kenya’s decision to make it mandatory for truck drivers – whether  Kenyans or foreigners leaving or entering the country – to be tested.

“You can imagine what would have happened if we had not started testing at the border. These numbers would be in our midst,” said Mr Kagwe.

The CS said whenever a foreigner tests positive at the border, they are denied entry into the country. Once this happens, he said, it is the mandate of the Tanzanian government to seek out the individuals and quarantine them. It is, however, not clear if this happens.

Kagwe defended the backlog of Tanzanian truckers stranded at the border points, saying the government was not intentionally keeping them there.

“It is because they have not been tested (in their own country), but we are doing that at our own cost. We won’t allow truck drivers to enter without a Covid-19 free certificate just like we do not allow our truck drivers to leave without being issued with one as well,” he said.

The CS, who was accompanied by his East African Community counterpart Adan Mohamed, while giving the update on coronavirus said the government was relying on Nyumba Kumi initiatives for communities at the border to flush out individuals who have recently been out of the country.

He noted that Wajir and Garissa counties also have spillovers from Somalia where 14 and two cases respectively had been confirmed.

“We have also moved personal protective equipment in all these places so that our people do not get exposed,” he said.

While the pandemic has laid bare the fragile relations between Kenya and Tanzania, Mohamed assured that the two countries are not in a bad place. He insisted that business was still ongoing but as per the directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“We are still transporting cargo, including today (yesterday) cargo is still being transported in and out of Kenya and Tanzania,” said Mohamed.

Kagwe said due to pockets of hotspots emerging as the disease spreads, a blind mass testing would not be precise, and so the government will maintain targeted testing. This will see a mobile laboratory set up at Namanga and another at Naivasha specifically to handle tests for truck drivers.

“There is no country in the world that goes around testing everyone on the streets. That will be wasteful, yet testing is expensive. We are going to areas where we have pointed out cases. Otherwise, if we test double the people we are testing today randomly, then we will even get less cases,” he said.

To date, the government has tested 46,784 samples with 963 people confirmed to have Covid-19. So far 358 people have recovered.

Kenya now has 555 active cases with the death toll standing at 50. None of the 555 is in critical care or symptomatic. “Even as we talk about our success, let us remember the virus is still with us. The numbers might not be increasing as fast, but they are going up,” he said.

The bulk of the cases - 268 - are individuals between ages 30 and 39, followed by 238 between 20 and 29, 172 between 40 and 49, and 112 (50-59). Those above 60 are 76, 60 are between ages 10 and 19 while those below nine are 37. Most deaths are among those over 60 years with 25 having died. Mombasa leads in number of deaths at 27.