Deficiency In COVID-19 Testing Reagents To Blame For Samples Backlog

Kenya is hoarding unprocessed COVID-19 samples according to the Kenya Medical Association (KMA), a medical agency, following a shortage of reagents to carry out the tests.

The testing which is vital to curbing the spread is challenged which explains why a huge number of people tested for COVID-19 virus are yet to receive their results.

KMA has also argued that the process of supplying the testing kits lacks order which is further watering down the public’s confidence in the whole process also adding that the government has no capacity to conduct significant community-based testing that is vital in curbing the rate of COVID-19 transmission.

Jacquline Kitulu, The KMA President, has urged the government to urgently consider re-evaluating the current community testing strategy as it is becoming a challenge for the government to acquire the necessary kits in sufficient quantities to increase its testing capacity.

KAM is requesting the Ministry of Health to use the limited sample collection and test kits available distributed to health facilities with the capacity to collect samples and/or conduct tests across the country.

“Specific Covid-19 treatment facilities should continue to be clearly designated and properly equipped and manned, leaving other facilities to continue offering other health services,” said Kitulu said adding that testing of health workers, patients admitted in health facilities, especially those with respiratory symptoms or requiring intensive care should be prioritized.

“Adequate numbers of health workers must be recruited and continuously trained on Covid-19 management in order to bolster the understaffed health workforce,” Kitulu said.

The Ministry of Health had earlier admitted that the country was experiencing a backlog in testing samples but did not divulge on what had led to the situation but noted most of the untested samples were of truck drivers, Nairobi and Mombasa residents.

Kenya’s testing capacity is way below per considering the rate of COVID-19 transmission which explains why the country’s number of patients in critical condition continues to rise.

“At the moment the backlog is minimal and we are still fighting with it. We have employed a lot of COVID-19 testing capacity in the western region where most of the truck drivers are stuck,” Francis Kuria Public Health Director said.

Africa at large is greatly challenged in procuring the COVID-19 testing kits that are on high demand across the world and unless the rate of transmission slows down, it goes without saying, Kenya and her fellow African countries are headed for a historical crisis.

“You can’t fight a virus if you don’t know where it is. Find, isolate, test, and treat every case, to break the chains of transmission. Every case we find and treat limits the expansion of the disease,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has always said which means that the government needs to work round the clock to fill up the deficiency existing in COVID-19 testing.

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