Kericho County has stepped up measures to fight against Covid-19 by installing a coronavirus Mass Testing Machine at the KEMRI Walter Reed project in Kericho.
The County now joins the league of national government by setting up a Testing Machine for Covid-19 at Walter Reed Laboratory in Kericho.
Governor Paul Chepkwony who launched the machine last Friday said the County Health department in collaboration with KEMRI and Walter Reed project will be able to conduct Covid-19 tests of up to 2000 samples in a single day.
“The equipment is a top notch and one of its kind in the country based at the KEMRI laboratories in Kericho,” Governor Chepkwony said.
“We will no longer need to send any sample of suspected Covid-19 individuals to Kisumu or Nairobi for analysis and testing but we shall do it here in Kericho and announce the results,” Prof Chepkwony said.
Photographs by Dominic Cheres/KNA.
Speaking when he launched the Machine, Chepkwony said, “ Soon, additional equipment will be activated at the KEMRI / Walter Reed Project laboratories in Kericho to increase daily testing capability to 6000 samples a day.”
He said that the service will be extended to counties in the Western region adding that this will go a long way in boosting the mass testing exercise at all entry points to the county and support measures in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The Kericho governor said that since the launch of mass testing exercise in its main entry points to the County over 50,000 persons have been screened and none has been isolated for exhibiting the Covid-19 disease.
Two suspects who escaped the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) quarantine in Nairobi and found their way into Kericho have since been arrested and are undergoing quarantine for 14 days at Kapkatet Medical Training College KMTC in Kericho.
The suspects are 25-year-old Nelson Kiplangat and Frankline Korir, aged 30 years.
Kericho County has not recorded any coronavirus positive case yet.
Governor Chepkwony said that the Department of Health Services and the County Emergency Response Committee Team and the National government interior ministry officers are on high alert to ensure that Coronavirus suspects are arrested and placed at designated quarantine centres for the specified 14 to 28 days as and when advised by medical officers and doctors in the County.
Chepkwony called on the residents of Kericho to heed government directives on Covid-19, by ensuring that they wash their hands regularly, observe social distancing, stay at home, and avoid unnecessary travel.
By Dominic Cheres
