Wednesday, May 5, 2021 – Kenya has confirmed the first-ever cases of the deadly Covid-19 variant from India.
Speaking on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health through Health Director-General, Dr. Patrick Amoth, confirmed 5 cases of the Indian variant.
The five are Indian nationals working on a fertilizer plant in Kisumu.
According to Amoth, the five cases were picked up on Thursday last week on arrival in the country before the ban on flights from India was imposed.
The fertilizer plant in Kisumu has now been fenced off in collaboration with public health officials and the 5 Indians to ensure the variant does not spread.
“This variant has been picked in Kenya and because of connectivity, it was just a matter of time.”
“You cannot be able to put barriers to prevent a virus from accessing your territory,” Amoth said.
“We picked this from a sample of Indian travelers who are doing some work in the western part of Kisumu.”
“We have gone ahead together with the Kisumu county health team to do contact tracing,” Amoth stated.
The results of the genome sequencing that is ongoing at the Kemri Walter Reed in Kisumu are expected in a week.
Dr. Amoth has noted that the five were staying in a camp, making it easier to do contact tracing.
The B.1.617 variant has been blamed for India’s second wave of infections that has seen the country’s cases surge to more than 20 million.
E! News Blog
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