Testing of Doctors, nurses, rapid response teams for COVID-19 to begin immediately - CS Kagwe

Brian Oruta

April 7, 2020 4:10 PM

CS Mutahi Kagwe announced on Tuesday

Testing of Doctors, nurses, rapid response teams for COVID-19 to begin immediately - Health CS Mutahi Kagwe

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has said that testing of all health workers, medical staff and rapid response teams for Novel Coronavirus will begin immediately.

In a statement, the CS said that the tests will be carried out in all public and private hospitals as well as all other facilities serving as quarantine facilities.

Kagwe mentioned that Kenya had acquired new reagents that allow COVID-19 tests to be carried out automatically without going through the manual process, as has been the case.

“Testing of all health workers and medical staff including those in private hospitals, rapid response teams, and all staff in all facilities holding quarantined persons must commence testing with immediate effect. I would like to report that we are lucky that we have started rapid testing in our facilities because we have got new reagents that can allow us to automatically test and not do the manual tests that we have been doing and for that reason we’ll be able to carry out those tests very quickly,” said CS Kagwe.

Testing of Doctors, nurses, rapid response teams for Covid-19 to begin immediately - CS Kagwe Pulse Live Kenya

He further pointed out that it is importance to have medical staff tested first, to ensure that they are not the ones spreading the virus, as they treat affected individuals.

“But it is important that we start with our medical staff even as we ask them to be careful, we must also ensure we do not have medical staff treating people who have the virus and therefore passing the virus to citizens,” added the CS.

Also Read: Coronavirus cases rise by 14 bringing total of cases in Kenya to 172- CS Kagwe

The Health Cabinet Secretary announced an additional 14 new cases of the deadly virus bringing the total to 172. He also announced three new recoveries.

Brian Oruta