The Ministry of Health says it is concerned over an influx of Rapid Diagnostic Tests kits in the Kenyan market purporting to diagnose COVID-19.
Speaking Wednesday, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Rashid Aman said testing and accuracy of testing is becoming increasingly important as the number of positive cases steadily rises, further confirming the fact that community transmission is now well established.
“We have noticed that several testing kits that purport to diagnose COVID-19 have permeated the market. Our position is that, we still retain Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) as the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19 until such a time that WHO issues an advisory on the use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs). He said.
He appealed to Kenyans to instead take the test at certified laboratories.
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PCR tests are used to directly detect the presence of an antigen, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies. By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form or symptoms of the disease are present, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on.
By scaling PCR testing to screen vast swathes of nasopharyngeal swab samples from within a population, public health officials can get a clearer picture of the spread of a disease like CoVID-19 within a population.
Kenya Wednesday recorded the highest number of positive cases at 184, from a sample size of 2,518, tested in the last 24 hours.
The positive cases now push the cumulative numbers to 4, 044 out of124, 474samples, that have been tested so far in the country.
In terms of gender,129 are males while 55 are females, and all of them except one, are Kenyans.
The 184 positive cases are distributed in counties as follows; Nairobi, (111)cases, Mombasa,(19), Kajiado, (14), Meru (13), Kiambu, (9),Busia, (6), Nakuru, (4), Machakos, (3), Kwale, Kisumu, Garissa, Taita Taveta and Vihiga Counties one (1) case each. Vihiga becomes the latest County to record a COVID-19 Case, bringing the number of counties so far affected to 40.
By sub-counties, the cases are distributed as follows; in Nairobi, Westlands, (33), Kibra, (19),Langata, (18)Embakasi East, (15),Dagoretti North, (12), Kamukunji, (4), Makadara, (2), Starehe, (2), Embakasi Central, (2), Roysambu, Embakasi West, Kasarani and Embakasi South, have one (1) case each.
In Mombasa, the cases are from, Mvita, (9), Changamwe (4), Likoni, (2),Nyali, (2), Jomvuand Kisauni,one (1) case each.
The cases in Kajiado are from Kajiado Central,(12), Kajiado East and Kajiado North, one (1) case each. In Meru, the 13 cases are all from Imenti North, while in Kiambu, the (9) cases are from Lari, (3), Juja, (2), Kabete, Kikuyu, Kiambu Town and Limuru have one (1) case each. In Busia, all the six (6) cases are of truck drivers in Malaba (5), and Matayos (1).
In Nakuru, the four cases are from Naivasha, (3), and Nakuru East, (1).In Machakos, all the three cases are from Athi River, while in Kwale, the case in Lungalunga. In Kisumu, the case is at Kisumu Central, while in Garissa, the case is from Garissa Township, whereas the case in Taita Taveta, is of a truck driver at Taveta, andthe case in Vihiga, is from the town.
27 patients were discharged from our various facilities, bringing the tally of recoveries to 1,353.
Two more patients succumbed to the disease. The total number of fatalities is now at 107.
