More cases of Indian Covid-19 detected in Kenya

May 13, 2021 11:06 AM

Deadly Indian Covid-19 strain in Kenya

Ministry of Health Director General Dr Patrick Amoth during a recent Covid-19 briefing

There have been more cases of the Indian Covid-19 strain detected in Kenya, the Ministry of Health confirmed on Wednesday.

Recommended articles

local Kenya Met Department warns that coming rains in Nairobi will be more intense
local Gov't makes changes in deployment of police during KCPE, KCSE & other exams
local JKUAT, Thika Superhighway, Mathare & other areas where floods have caused havoc

Director General Dr Patrick Amoth, however, confirmed that the variant was yet to establish community transmission though genomic sequencing efforts are ongoing.

Dr Amoth stated that there are 15 more cases of the Indian variant of the coronavirus bringing the total number of reported cases to 20.

"18 samples were positive, of these 15 were of the India variant. Genomic sequencing is an expensive venture not done in hospitals but in two centres. In Kisumu we are testing 70 contacts that were traced to have come into contact with the five cases, not to be released until genomic sequencing is done and determined," Dr Amoth stated.

CAS Dr Rashid Aman added that hospitals are yet to detect the strain among patients.

"We haven’t had any hospitals that are able to detect it. We are being more vigilant," Dr Aman stated.