By Okong’o Oduya
Buisa County, Kenya: Busia County today launched the process of mass testing of corona virus to its people.
According to Busia County Governor, Sospeter Ojaamong the testing machines at Busia County Refferal Hospital are capable of testing 100 people daily and release results six hours.
Ojaamong says Busia County is prepared to combat the virus and as a county the machine in the hospital will not only serve people of Busia but also those from Eastern Uganda, adding that the nearest equipment of such kind is found in Kenya medical research institute in Kisumu.
He called upon those willing to do testing such as those in hotel industry, truck drivers, health workers and public at large to visit the facility for testing.
“Our people who want to be tested, those who are in hotel business, the truck drivers, our health workers will get their services here. This is a great opportunity for the people of Busia County to have these machines near them because they will get services closer to them,” he said.
He further said they are in talks with Kenya medical research institute, KEMRI at Alupe to have a mass testing exercise.
According to him the machine at Alupe has a large capacity of testing up to 10,000 cases daily compared with the one at referral hospital in Busia that is capable to test only 100 people daily.
He said, the county government has acquired Younear guest house that will host medical staff that will come into contact with covid-19 related victims before allowing them rejoin their families.
“We are also in talks with KEMRI to have a mass testing exercise at alupe-Kemri,that machine can do 10,000 tests in a day whereas ours at county referral can do 100 tests a day and can give results in six hours. We have also acquired a Yunear hotel where our staff that comes into contact with covid-19 suspects will be quarantined, because we don’t want them to mix with their families after work,” he said.
He further revealed that the county has trained enough medical personnel to handle corona related cases.
“With the help from the National government we have trained and are still here training our medical personnel and we hope to get more and more qualified staff to handle the corona related cases,” he said.
Ojaamong further urged the national government to carry out tests to all truck drivers before they embark on the journey to Uganda via Busia to avoid those with virus contacting the disease to people in Busia. With long truck queues being witnessed in Busia and Malaba towns, Ojaamong noted that was a threat of to the locals.
“Whether Kenya and Uganda are supposed to test truck drivers simultaneously,I believe something is being done at the regional level. But we shall insist in insuring that these people test where they are coming from , if we doubt them we might be forced to test them again before we release them to the environment,” he said.
On budgeting and allocating of funds to fight corona Ojaamong said the national government has already released 5 billion Kenya shillings to the counties to enable them address the pandemic.
He said the county will do another supplementary budget to incorporate with what they had approved early this week.
Benard Muture, coordinator East Africa public health laboratory network project supported by World Bank, said they installed the equipment, and then trained the medical staff besides testing them who turned negative in preparation to conduct corona testing.
Muture said the equipment have been at Busia county referral hospital for some time after they were purchased by the World Bank at cost of 20M three years ago.
Ojaamong used the opportunity to launch the fumigation process in County as measures to control the virus from Busia.
Elsewhere the Association of Kenya Secondary School Head teachers (KESSHA) Busia branch donated goods and equipment worth Ksh300,000 to the Busia county covid-19 committee as their contributions towards fight against covid-19.
Addressing the media after handing over their donation to Busia county covid-19 response committee KESSHA chairman Busia branch Nickson Boyi said water tanks, soap, and foodstuff will play a big role towards fighting the disease in the county especially during this time people are being asked to work from home.
The association donated 100 tanks, 100 bottles of washing soap, 200 masks, 15 bags of maize and 5 bags of beans.
Concerning education, Boyi challenged the Ministry of education on E-learning program adding that the program is leaving out less fortunate children in the society who can’t access learning material digitally.
“It is impossible for learners to continue learning online the way government wants us to believe. We all know that the Internet coverage in this country is poor. Other sections of this country have no power connection. Other parents have no gadgets that can support digital learning.
Telling students to fully rely on digital learning is discriminating those from well-off families and those from disadvantaged families. Let the ministry of education make sure that every student access the online learning equally to prepare every child to sit for the exams,” he said.
