• Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said Kenya is among the 13 top priority countries that will receive the assistance this week.
• Kenyatta National Hospital, where most suspects are being taken, has about 40 isolatino beds, but more beds are found in the private hospitals in Nairobi.
Kenya will no longer need to send samples to South Africa for coronavirus tests.
The World Health Organization says it is sending diagnostic kits and reagents to Kenya this week, to boost the country's capacity to make definitive tests.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said Kenya is among the 13 top priority countries that will receive the assistance this week.
Currently, Kenya can make preliminary tests of the virus but has to send samples to South Africa for confirmation.
"Since this is a new virus, there are currently only two referral laboratories in the African region which have the reagents needed to conduct such tests.
"However, reagent kits are being shipped to more than 20 other countries in the region, so diagnostic capacity is expected to increase over the coming days," she said.
WHO identified 13 top priority countries as Algeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
These countries have either direct links or a high volume of travel to China.
The assurance came as preliminary results for a Kenyan isolated in Mombasa and two in Nairobi tested negative for the virus.
The samples were sent to South Africa for confirmation.
The pandemic is also testing Kenya's ability to handle such outbreaks in future.
Kenyatta National Hospital, where most suspects are being taken, has about 40 isolation beds, but more beds are found in the private hospitals within Nairobi.
The death toll in China from the deadly coronavirus outbreak that originated in the central city of Wuhan rose to at least 362 on Monday.
The total number of people infected with the virus rose to 17,205 across the country.
About 150 cases have been reported in two dozen other countries.
These countries are Australia (12 cases), United States (11 cases), France (6), Germany (10), South Korea (15 ), Thailand (19 ), Singapore (13 ), Taiwan (10), Hong Kong (15), Vietnam (7), United Arab Emirates (5) and Malaysia (eight cases).
Others are United Kingdom (2 cases), Cambodia (1), Canada (4), Finland (1), India (3 ), Italy (2), Japan (20), Macao (8), Nepal (1), Philippines (2 cases, 1 death), Russia (2), Spain (1), Sri Lanka (1), and Sweden (1).
Last week, the African Union urged Kenyans not to panic because of rumours and reports of suspected cases in the country.
Kenya's relative risk of receiving a case of the virus is sixth in Africa, according to a new modelling study produced by the Northeastern University in the US.
“There will continue to be rumours around suspected cases because the initial symptoms that people manifest will be very similar to those of the common cold,” said Dr John Nkengasong, director at the Africa Centres for Disease Control during a press conference in Addis Ababa.
Currently, no country in Africa has an active case of the virus.
But Dr Nkengasong said there are “rumours of unconfirmed cases in several countries,” and such rumours are likely to increase with time.