Still no mass swabs in Kilifi County.
After the initiative launched by the Government in Nairobi and Mombasa counties, particularly affected by the Covid-19 virus outbreak, to test more citizens involved in sensitive facilities such as hospitals, public offices, transport and trade, similar initiatives are expected in other counties that were immediately affected by the restrictions decided to limit contagion.
These include Kilifi, with Malindi and Watamu, but swabs have not yet been made available and the possibility of mass testing is precluded for the moment and the only swabs available are used by the local Ministry of Health team for suspicious cases only.
The alarm was raised and his request reiterated in recent days by Kilifi County Governor Amason Kingi himself, who had already planned, to begin with, complete checks for his 1800 health workers scattered throughout the area.
But the swabs from Nairobi have not yet arrived and Kingi is visibly disappointed.
"The kits are not yet available in stores and we rely on the national government to supply them, but they keep telling us that there is a national shortage," the Governor explained, "the tampons we bought are practically sold out. There are days when we can't test even one person".
The national rationing of the tampons means that as soon as some arrive, in the order of 20 or 30 at a time, they are immediately used and then for days there are not available for possible emergencies. There are very few kits available from the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KeMSA).
"We need them, so if 1,000 people arrive, we will already have 1,000 people to test - he added It's a frustrating situation because we are willing to test but we can't," Kingi added - we announced the start of mass swabs for the Covid-19 emergency two weeks ago, but only 300 people have been tested. In any case, they all tested negative.
The fact is that two months after the emergency began in Kenya, less than a thousand people have been tested in Kilifi County. The six cases reported before 22 March remain, and the patients have all recovered.