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Kenya Heightens Surveillance at Entry Points Over New Covid-19 Variant

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4 years ago

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Nairobi — Kenya has intensified screening at the border points, particularly on travelers from countries where the new Omicron strain has been detected.

Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache says this is among the stringent measures being adopted to ensure that the virus strain does not get its way into the country.

“We are ensuring that any person coming into the country from those countries where this variant has been identified are properly screened. They must be able to show that they have done a PCR test and we will even repeat the test at the point of entry. We will also require a vaccination certificate,” she said.

She further maintained that the government will rely on science and will not close its borders.

“We are not taking any chances at our borders. We have seen mutations before and we have learnt our lessons. We are doing everything possible to ensure the variant does not get into our territory. We are science-led rather than make knee jerk reactions in as far as closing our borders is concerned,” she said.

Mochache encouraged those yet to be vaccinated against COVID 19, to secure themselves to increase their resistance to such variants.

“The World Health Organisation has indicated that Covid is going to be with us way into 2022. The vaccines we have are potent and are able to respond against any variant so far. The only guarantee to secure yourself is to get vaccinated,” she added.

The Omicron variant carries 32 mutations which make it highly transmissible and with potential for vaccine escape.