Kenya Now 3rd In Africa To Set Up Fully Equipped Lab To Test Coronavirus

Kenya is now in a position to test for the Novel Coronavirus that has killed 1,100 people in China after a month of fully depending on South Africa and will begin carrying out tests immediately.

Kenya now has two facilities set to test for the Novel Coronavirus which is being reported to be spreading like wildfire and claiming lives across China and neighboring countries.

Kenya has previously been depending on South Africa where samples of suspected cases are flown to the Country for tests and results flown back into Kenya.

Laboratories under National Influenza Centre were hosted at the National Public Health Laboratories and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and are all set to begin testing according to the acting Director-General of Health Patrick Amoth.

“We received the kits on the 9^th of February 2020, Sunday, and we will now be able to test for the new Novel Coronavirus locally,” Doctor Amoth told the press.

The essence of the labs being two is to enable the researchers to compare their results for accuracy purposes.

Kenya previously lacked the necessary reagent kits which is why it sent out samples of previously suspected cases of Novel Coronavirus to South Africa for testing.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Novel Coronavirus outbreak as a global emergency with researchers working round the clock to find a means of containing it.

The Lancet Group of Laboratories Chief Consultant Pathologist, Ahmed Kalebi, has termed the process of testing for Coronavirus as complex as test kits have to be freshly developed and need to be confirmed to be working.

Testing will now take Kenya 24 hours to be able to tell whether a suspected case of Novel Coronavirus is positive or negative.

Previously, there were only two laboratories in Africa and these were in South Africa and Senegal which is why it is a great achievement for Kenya’s Ministry of Health.

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