Mombasa County is leading in Corona cases in the country, the Mombasa Governor, Hassan Ali Joho has revealed.
Speaking on Thursday, during the unveiling of a 54-bed Capacity Hospital at the Technical University of Mombasa, Joho said results from daily mass testing have surpassed Nairobi in terms of percentages.
Governor Joho said the mass testing exercise that began at the Kenya Ports Authority two days ago, 10 percent of those tested have turned positive.
“Out of the 300 tests conducted at the Port, 23 people were confirmed positive for the virus and there is need for Mombasa to be under lockdown,” said the governor who has frequently called on the national government to put a stop to movement in the coastal county.
The Governor said though Nairobi has more cases, the population of those tested rank low as compared to the population of Mombasa of 1.2million people compared to Nairobi’s Five million people.
He passionately appealed for a total lockdown “soonest possible”, saying he is in consultations with the concerned government agencies to save the lives of people in the small island of Mombasa from the scourge.
The Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) engineering wing was set-up as an additional COVID-19 Isolation Center to the 150 available isolation beds at the Coast General Hospital which is the regions COVID-19 disease referral hospital.
Governor Joho decried the continued indifference of the coastal people on the disease, saying people are still leading lifestyles that promote the spread of the disease defying the social distance directive.
The Governor lauded all healthcare providers in Mombasa for agreeing to bring together their facilities, provisions and healthcare personnel to work in efforts to flatten the Covid-19 curve by combating the contracting, transmission, spread of the disease.
The Mombasa County Commissioner (CC), Gilbert Kitiyo who is also the Co-chairs said the Covid-19 Committee with Governor Joho echoed the Governor’s sentiments, saying those living carelessly will be dealt with if found defying governments directives.
Kitiyo said going the government will make it very difficult for people to cross the roadblocks at the entrance and entry points on all roads in the county.
By Joseph Kamolo
