NAIROBI, Kenya May 28 – Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on Friday assured Kenyans that there is no cause for panic even though the country has so far detected 28 cases of the India Variant of coronavirus.
Speaking at State House, Nairobi, Kagwe said the Ministry and collaboration with the County Government of Kisumu has ensured that all cases have been isolated and managed according to the national COVID-19 case management guidelines and contact tracing has been performed in order to limit the spread of the variant.
“We don’t need to cause any panic, we are emphasising on the need to adhere to the measures, so that we keep our distance. The most important thing is to avoid any crowding in the streets, markets, and other social gatherings that can otherwise portend ill for us,” he stressed.
The Health CS reiterated that all the health ministry measures will be observed as Kisumu County hosts this year’s Madaraka Day on Tuesday.
He urged those invited not to be afraid of the Indian variant which was detected in Kisumu saying their safety has been prioritized
“It is unfortunate that we cannot have the kind of celebrations that we could have heard in Kisumu, we cannot all come together as we would have wanted to be, Kisumu. But we are together in spirit, we are together in understanding, we are united as a team to ensure that we celebrate in a manner that we can be happy about the next day,” CS Kagwe stated.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Ministry of Health indicated that 28 samples had the Indian Variant while six had the UK variant. One sample had the South African variant. Four had variants from the two countries.
The Ministry further expressed concerns of one novel sample that had both the UK and Indian variant which he points out has significant public health implications.
“It is important to note that the ongoing genomic surveillance has revealed early and established community transmission of both UK and Indian variants of concern in Kisumu and Mombasa Counties,” Health CS said.
