•Governor Ongwae noted that the machine will go a long way to boost Covid-19 surveillance and control.
•Ongwae decried the high positivity rate of Covid-19 cases reported in the country.
Kisii county has received a Covid-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction test machine as Governor James Ongwae threatened to institute tough containment measures over increasing cases of the pandemic.
Speaking at Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital when he inspected the machine, Governor Ongwae noted that it will go a long way to boost Covid-19 surveillance and control.
“The machine has capacity to test more than 1,000 samples in 24 hours. This will improve the turnaround time for results from two days to a few hours because we have been taking our samples to Kisumu. It will also save on fuel and other transport expenditures to Kisumu,” Ongwae said.
Once operational in two weeks’ time, the testing machine will be a relief not only to Kisii but also the neighbouring counties of Nyamira, Narok, Homa Bay, Migori and Bomet counties.
The PCR machine was procured through the national government and the World Bank funding. Seventeen facilities benefited across the country.
The governor thanked President Uhuru Kenyatta for considering Kisii county to have the machine, saying the county has been sending samples to Kisumu.
At the same time, Ongwae decried the high positivity rate of Covid-19 cases reported in the county.
He pointed out that the county recorded as high as 40 per cent cases of Covid-19 for samples tested in a single day for the better part of last week.
“The infection rate in the county is high because in the last 48 hours the positivity rate is 40 per cent. The rate is high and completely unacceptable and alarming. We shall have an intergovernmental meeting so that we can put measures in place,” said Ongwae.
KTRH CEO Enock Ondari, county Public Health officer Richard Onkware and Director of Medical Services Geoffrey Otomu said it was a big milestone for the facility.
“We can now test patients scheduled for surgery before they go to theatre in a bid to protect health workers,” Ondari said.
Director of Health Onkware announced that so far, 41 deaths have been reported in Kisii since the beginning of the outbreak last year, being 2.9 per cent of the infected.
"It is important to note that in the past one week, the positivity rate in Kisii has been hitting over 40 per cent in some days and this has compelled us to close down non-essential service offices at the county headquarters to help break the chain,” Onkware said.
Kisii county has vaccinated 9,951 people including health workers (1,922), security officers (651), teachers (1,854), those aged above 58 years (3,156) and others (2,368).