The Kwale County Department of Health has kicked off a mass exercise of disinfecting market places, prisons and bus parks as a mitigation measure of containing the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
The fumigation is taking place at a time the coastal county confirmed a positive case of coronavirus on Sunday.
The patient, a French tourist, is admitted at the Msambweni sub county hospital receiving medication.
Governor Salim Mvurya said his administration is taking the lead in ensuring all necessary precautions with regard to the covid-19 are observed.
He said the whole fumigation exercise forms part of a countywide disinfection of public spaces to control the spread of the disease.
Mvurya advised the residents to maintain high standards of hygiene and observe social distancing as a way of curtailing the spread of covid-19 in these trying times.
“We have kicked off disinfection of the prisons, markets, bus parks, matatus, taxis, boda bodas and tuktuks and we call upon all operators to cooperate with this exercise in the entire county,” he said.
He called for the scaling up of the collective and individual hygiene efforts to enable the county win over this pandemic.
The exercise at the Kwale town bus park was led by the County Health Executive, Francis Gwama.
Gwama said that all county markets and all public service vehicles and bodabodas will be fumigated on a regular basis.
“We have started this exercise in Kwale town and it is going to take place in all the four sub counties and we urge the people to support our initiatives to contain the spread of the virus by adhering to all health regulations,” he said.
The interior and exterior of over 200 public service vehicles and boda bodas were disinfected at the Kwale matatu stage, and also the Kwale town market.
Matatu drivers, bodaboda riders and hawkers applauded the initative noting it will go a long way in combating the spread of the viral infections.
Efforts by the county government of Kwale come at a time when Kenya had confirmed a total of 16 cases of coronavirus infection by Monday.
Among the sixteen confirmed cases one is a foreign patient admitted at the Msambweni sub county hospital in Kwale.
Meanwhile, residents of Naivasha town have been urged to strictly adhere to government directives on the fight against Coronavirus pandemic after twenty five hotel workers were put on quarantine.
The decision came after it emerged that one of the eight people who tested positive of the virus had spent the night at the three-star-hotel located along Moi South Lake road in Naivasha.
The Naivasha Sub-County Deputy County Commissioner (DCC), Mathioya Mbogo said the government has heightened surveillance in and around the town to ensure the directives were followed to help curb the spread of the dreaded virus.
Addressing the press at his office on Tuesday, Mbogo called on area residents to observe to the government directives of hand washing, staying indoors and avoiding crowded areas.
“We are working closely with health workers and our chiefs in identifying those people who arrived in the country recently so that they can be placed on self-quarantine,” he said.
On the issue of the 25 workers, Mbogo said that they were keenly monitoring their condition with visits to the hotel limited only to health workers.
A French couple are said to have visited the hotel on March 9 before departing the following day for Amboseli and later to Kilifi where the man was confirmed to be COVID-19 positive.
The administrator at the same time said that they were keenly following operations in tens of flower farms in the area in the wake of the pandemic where farmers have agreed to send their workers on paid leave as they monitored the situation.
The Kenya Plantations and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) secretary Naivasha branch, Ferdinand Juma said the situation was worrying as very few flowers are being exported.
“Since last week around 3,000 workers have been sent on paid leave while those on contract have been sent home for two weeks as their employers monitor the situation,” he said.
Juma admitted that the crisis had raised anxiety and fear among thousands of workers in Naivasha as their jobs were increasingly becoming uncertain.
By Hussein Abdullahi/Esther Mwangi/Joan Muniu
