This archive report was first published on 15 June 2020.
Published on June 15, 2020, a prominent mental health professor, Lukoye Atwoli, has spoken out against the call for Kenyans to obtain Covid-19 certificates.
Dr. Atwoli, an associate professor of Psychiatry at Moi University, emphasized that testing negative for Covid-19 does not guarantee immunity to the virus.
According to Dr. Atwoli, a negative Covid-19 test result only indicates that the virus was not detected in the individual's samples at a particular time and place.
“A negative Covid-19 test result means the virus was not detected in the samples collected from an individual on a particular day at a particular time. It doesn’t mean that the person is immune to COVID-19 and cannot contract it hours, days, or weeks after the test is done,” Dr. Atwoli explained.
He further noted that a Covid-19 negative certificate is therefore meaningless beyond confirming that a person at the time the sample was collected was unlikely to be infected.
Dr. Atwoli's comments come in response to a call by Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga, who urged Kenyans to get Covid-19 certificates by voluntarily undergoing testing.
Private hospitals are charging up to Sh10,000 for the Covid-19 tests, while the Ministry of Health has only conducted targeted testing.
Dr. Atwoli emphasized that the only way to control the impact of the virus is by using old-fashioned infectious disease control measures, such as social distancing, wearing face masks, and maintaining high levels of personal hygiene, until more definitive solutions are developed.
