Coronavirus cases hit 38 as Mutahi Kagwe urges discipline

Nairobi County health workers before a fumigation exercise along Tom Mboya street in Nairobi on Friday. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

There are seven new cases of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in Kenya. Four of the patients had a history of travel while the rest had not travelled in the recent past.

According to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, of the seven patients, four are Kenyans, two Congolese and one Chinese. All the new cases are in Nairobi.

This puts the number of cases recorded in the country over the last three weeks at 38. One Kenyan patient died on Thursday while undergoing treatment at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi.

In a press briefing on the state of coronavirus in the country yesterday, Mr Kagwe offered some hope explaining that the first and third patients being monitored by medics have tested negative and are awaiting one more confirmatory test before they are discharged from the isolation centres where they are being held.

“Tracing of contacts is ongoing and 1,141 more people are being monitored,” he said. He added that if anyone is found to have been in close contact with the people who have tested positive, the ministry of health will go to their homes and escort them to a health facility.

At the same time, the mass testing of more than 2,000 people who arrived in the country in the last 14 days and have been on mandatory quarantine, begins today.

He reinforced the need for quarantine, especially for people who have been in contact with someone who has been found positive, and those who have recently travelled to high-risk countries.

Not healthy

“There is nothing wrong with being quarantined. I have a son who is quarantined. You should be happy to be quarantined because it means you reduce chances of infecting someone else,” he said.

The CS said the trends being recorded in the country are not healthy, and that the over 1,000 people being monitored have the potential of infecting 1,000 more, hence creating an unending cycle of infections if people do not get disciplined to follow the rules the government has set up to contain the spread of the virus.

“This is how people in Italy are dying in thousands. We must do what others who have succeeded are doing. It is important that we follow these rules,” he said, stressing on the importance of staying home.

Amid the chaos and complaints that came from the curfew that started on Friday, with people complaining of police brutality, Kagwe maintained the government will not relent from enforcing the rules.

“It was inevitable that on the first day there were going to be issues,” he said, urging employers to come up with a schedule that will allow the employees work in shifts.