Laboratory doctors' strikes, lack of swab kits, but also fewer requests for symptomatics. These are the three main reasons why new cases are minimal in Kenya and why the percentages for swabs are optimistic.
According to some health workers who have reported to local media, although the percentages are true, they refer to a small number of swabs tested for the reason that there is a national shortage of extraction kits in public facilities. In fact, most of the tests, for the past month, have come from private facilities.
According to these sources, reported by the Daily Nation newspaper, the shortage of swabs is found in Kenya particularly in the Nairobi, Kilifi and Kisumu sites of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), as well as the Coast General Provincial Hospital in Mombasa and the National Public Health Laboratories Services in the capital.
According to Ahmed Kalebi, Managing Director of Lancet Kenya, the best known of the private laboratories that carry out swabs, the decline in swabs is glaring.
"At Lancet we are doing 300 to 600 tests a day, currently down from 700 to 1,100 at the peak of the second wave from November to December," Khalebi said, "The drop in testing is a reflection of reduced demand due to the lower infection rate currently in place. The demand for testing is a consequence of the number of positive contacts, but the fact is that we have the lowest rate of positivity below 5% in eight consecutive days, and deaths have also dropped significantly.
However, the delay in disseminating the tests is a cause for concern to many, especially since the disseminated tests may give a better picture of the spread of Covid-19.
In a previous interview, Director General of Health Patrick Amoth had set a range of 6,000 to 10,000 tests per day for a minimum of two weeks as the 'quantum' that could give a clear indication that the rate of positivity in the country is actually decreasing.