Kirinyaga County has screened over 15,000 people crossing into the county from neighbouring counties in the past one week for coronavirus.
This has been achieved through setting up of road blocks at Kwa Samaki in Sagana to attend to travelers from Nairobi, at PI to screen those coming from Embu, at Sagana town to screen those coming from Murang’a and at Kiangai for the passengers from the neighbouring Nyeri County.
Governor Anne Waiguru while speaking over the exercise said the test involves checking the temperature of everyone travelling into the county and is aimed at detecting anyone with fever or coronavirus symptoms.
She said the checkpoints manned by the police and public health officers are able to attend to about 2,300 people in a day using non-contact gun thermometers.
Waiguru said the county has 30 such thermometers which are being used on the roads and in some of the health facilities adding that the county is in the process of acquiring 50 more thermometers to cater for all the health facilities in the county.
The governor however, said that so far none of the travelers have been detected to have fever but added the screening team is vigilant and ready to handle any case that may be indicative of coronavirus infection.
“Apart from screening at the road blocks, patients and other people accessing health facilities are also screened to ensure that anyone infected does not spread the virus into the hospitals,” Waiguru said.
Screening at county border points comes at a time when the National Government has barred movement of people in and from Nairobi Metropolitan, Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale counties with the exemption of those offering the gazzetted essential services.
Waiguru at the same time has stressed the need for motorists to cooperate with the officials at the checkpoints to ensure smooth execution of the screening exercise.
She said that even though the county has not yet recorded any corona case, all the prescribed prevention guidelines must be adhered to at all times to guard the county against the pandemic.
The governor said the county government has put in place various prevention measures that include establishing hand washing points in public places, distribution of sanitisers in all health facilities, enforcing social distancing in public areas and setting up of an isolation ward at Kerugoya County Referral Hospital among other measures.
By Irungu Mwangi
