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Kenya: COVID-19 – Kemri, Kenyatta Hospital Halt Testing Public

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5 years ago

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As coronavirus cases continue to surge, the Health ministry is changing its testing strategy as it seeks to stamp out corruption.

The Nation has established that State testing centres, including the National Public Health Laboratory Services, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) are no longer testing the public, a move that will affect many who rely on free screening.

In a memo to all directors and heads of departments, for example, senior director of clinical services at KNH, Dr Irene Inwani, said following the decision that Mbagathi isolation unit will only admit Covid-19 confirmed cases, the unit will no longer handle any suspected cases or screen the public.

“The head of Unit Respiratory Infectious Diseases is directed to stop all the screening activities and public testing at the KNH Mbagathi IDU,” she stated.

This comes after a nurse at KNH was charged alongside one of the recipients of a coronavirus-free certificate at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.

Kemri, on the other hand, announced it would no longer collect Covid-19 samples for testing, but will instead test samples from designated testing centres following claims that private facilities were charging for tests that were conducted at the agency using donated kits.

Government officials have so far downplayed the effectiveness of wider testing, while critics accuse them of doing so to hide shortage of test kits.