Saturday August 22, 2020
A resident gets tested for Covid-19 during a pilot mass testing at Garissa Primary School on August 20, 2020.
Garissa County’s department of health is set to begin a 10-day mass testing for the novel coronavirus from next week.
According to the health department, the testing will start on August 24.
A pilot mass testing was conducted at Garissa Primary School grounds on Thursday.Garissa, which borders Somalia, has recorded a total of 203 Covid-19 cases since the first case was reported in Kenya in March.
The County Chief Officer of Health Abdishukri Abdi said mass testing will help reveal asymptomatic cases.
Mr Abdi added that the testing and track-and-trace programme will go a long way in isolating individuals that may be spreading the virus without knowledge.
He challenged the residents to present themselves for testing and support efforts by public health officers to control the spread of the virus.
'We ask the residents of the county to take advantage of the free mass testing exercise and present themselves', said Mr Abdishukri
Kenya has recorded over 31,000 Covid-19 cases and nearly 600 deaths since the outbreak of the virus.
Kenya is among five African countries projected to record the largest number of Covid-19 deaths on the continent by December, according to a study.