NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 19 – But how does someone manage to sneak out of an isolation facility at a time of a serious pandemic such as coronavirus?
Such was the questions in the minds of many, after a revelation by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe that a man who recently arrived from abroad had taken off from Mbagathi Hospital where he had been quarantined.
This is particularly worrying, coming just a day after a similar announcement on a woman also escaped from the same facility before she was recaptured by security forces and taken back.
Already, officials said, 85 people thought to have been in contact with he are being traced for quarantine.
And before they are even traced, authorities are now grappling with a new challenge of getting these others who must have interacted with the man who was fished out from a city hotel.
The man had earlier been kicked out of a top hotel off Kiambu Road since he was supposed to be under self-isolation.
“We will keep the gentleman at the isolation by force. It is very irresponsible for a person to know that they could have been exposed (to the virus) and then they go dancing in the clubs,” said Mutahi Kagwe, Kenya’s Health Cabinet Secretary in whose hands the health of Kenyans fall.
During his daily briefing Thursday, Kagwe took time to warn Kenyans arriving from abroad to self-quarantine.
“If we disciplined enough to fall what the government is saying, then we will contain this transmission,” the CS said. “If we behave well, we are going to avoid the kind of scenarios we are seeing in other parts of the country.”
Already, authorities have introduced a mandatory legal form for all the people returning from abroad, committing to self- quarantine.
In the legal document, people are supposed to provide their physical address and contacts.
“We shall closely monitor their movements,” the CS assured.
Kenya has seven confirmed coronavirus cases, and has announced tough measures many emphasising on high hygiene measures to control further spread.
With mandatory random testing set to begin this weekend, it means the government is determined to break the cycle in measures undertaken in China, particularly Wuhan City where the first case was reported before spreading to the rest of the country and eventually the rest of the world.
On Wednesday, top Health Ministry officials held a video conference with their Chinese counterparts who shared vital lessons on how to tame the virus by controlling a further spread.
