Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok on Saturday, August 15, revealed that a security guard stationed at his home as well as several senior officials of the County Government of Turkana had contracted Covid-19.
Speaking at the funeral of Assistant Chief Livingston Erupe in Lokichar, Nanok stated that samples had been collected from members of his close circle for Covid-19 testing; including guards at his residence, cooks, his wife and a child.
According to Nanok, the test results were forwarded to him as he traveled to Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, forcing him to call off the trip.
"The Coronavirus visited my home but was swiftly identified while still at the gate. I travelled immediately from Eldoret to Lodwar by road to order a Covid-19 test on all, including senior officers in my administration,” he stated.
He confirmed that a number of county officials were found to have been infected in the results that followed.
Nanok stated that he chose to make the information public as he was aware that the officials came into contact with numerous members of the public in their day-to-day activities.
He cited the situation as evidence of community transmission, urging Turkana residents to adhere to Covid-19 prevention measures and the Ministry of Health guidelines.
The Nanok-led administration has instituted a raft of measures in a bid to curb the spread of the virus in Turkana.
In July, the Governor unveiled Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and High Dependency Unit (HDU) centres at the Lodwar County Referral Hospital (LCRH).
He also announced the acquisition of three new ambulances as part of the plan to boost preparedness to handle Covid-19 cases.
As of July 24, the county had 154 isolation beds with Nanok promising that he was working to increase the number to meet the stipulated 300-minimum isolation bed capacity per county.
Testing efforts were also supported by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) which set up a testing centre at Kakuma complete with an RT-PCR machine. Previously, samples from Turkana had to be transported to towns including Kisumu and Eldoret for testing.
