The government has commenced mass testing for more than 2000 persons, who arrived in the country from last Sunday, March 22, 2020, and are currently under mandatory quarantine in various designated hotels and government facilities.
According to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, the testing is being conducted in line with World Health Organization guidelines on testing for the virus, and in accordance with one’s arrival date.
The exercise seeks to detect possible positive cases and subsequent house clusters and contacts in an effort to shut down the spread of COVID-19.
The exercise is expected to continue for the next three days and will ensure possible cases are identified isolated and contained to break the chain of transmission.
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Kenya now emulates countries like Germany that have reported relatively low cases of deaths owing to mass testing, as milder cases that are treatable are identified before they get out of hand.
This comes amid a raft of measures the country has put in place to curb the spread of the virus.
Counties like Marsabit have directed healthcare workers in the county to screen everyone entering the region for COVID-19 in an effort to contain its spread.
The county administration has already identified Marsabit Boys and Moyale Boys Secondary Schools as quarantine centres.
The development coming as traders continue to bear the brunt of radical measures implemented by the government to stem the spread of the global pandemic.
Elsewhere, Churches across the country remained shut to worshippers for the first time in recent history in conformity to a government directive banning church gatherings.
Church leaders were forced to find creative ways to ensure their followers did not miss out on their Sunday sermon.
In some cases, the preachers used traditional methods literally preaching from a loudspeaker as they moved around while others embraced technology using social media platforms to reach their followers.
A majority of churches took advantage of technology to live stream the day’s sermon through social media channels.
Others using church WhatsApp groups to engage their followers.
In other cases, such as this church in Narok, the church leader was physically in the church at the pulpit. It is from here that he streamed the day’s sermon.