Since the first Covid-19 case was declared in Kenya on March 12, 2020, the country has gone on to record a total of 320 cases and 14 deaths as of April 23.
The disease that was first detected in Nairobi has gone on to spread to other parts of the country with Mombasa County developing into an epicentre of the disease in Kenya.
After the Kenya Ports Authority lost two employees to coronavirus, the Health Ministry through CAS Dr Mercy Mwagangi declared on April 12, that mass testing exercise would begin in phases with KPA employees being one of the first clusters to be tested.
“As we try and scale up mass testing, we are bound to get more cases of coronavirus within our population. So the next two to three weeks will be very important for us as we first start our targeted testing of quarantine centres, then healthcare workers before rolling out to mass testing in different institutions,” said Dr Mercy during a media briefing at Afya House.
On Sunday, April 19, mass testing began and results from the samples taken confirmed that 24 KPA employees have contracted Covid-19, and have already been put into quarantine facilities.
The news of 24 individuals testing positive, is a cause for concern for Mombasa residents who may have mingled with the individuals unknowingly. Ministry of Health surveillance teams were deployed to help trace possible contacts of the positive individuals.
Mombasa County comes second after Nairobi as the counties with the highest number of Covid-19 cases. The situation has prompted various opinion leaders including Mombasa Governor Ali Joho to call on the national government to declare a total lockdown of the Coastal county.
"I am surprised, to still see boda boda operators carrying four people and not wearing face masks. What more do you want to hear?, If you insist on wandering about, we will have to find a way to deal with you.
“I fail to understand why people do not understand that this disease is real and it kills. It is out on our doorsteps knocking and we are busy opening for it to come in,” stated Joho.
On Tuesday, April 14, Julius Ogogoh, the Executive Director of The Commission for Human Rights and Justice (CHRJ) while addressing members of the press blamed the behaviour of Mombasa residents for the ballooning cases of Covid-19 in the county.
“If the security agencies do not enforce these mitigating measures to stop the spread of Covid-19, I’m afraid there is likely to be an explosion of the virus in Mombasa which we will live to regret,” he warned.
