This archive report was first published on 13 July 2020.
Published on July 13, 2020, the Health ministry has changed its testing strategy in a bid to curb corruption.
State testing centres, including the National Public Health Laboratory Services, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), have stopped testing the public, affecting those who rely on free screening.
KNH's Mbagathi isolation unit will only admit confirmed COVID-19 cases, and the unit will no longer handle suspected cases or screen the public, according to a memo from senior director of clinical services Dr. Irene Inwani.
"The head of Unit Respiratory Infectious Diseases is directed to stop all the screening activities and public testing at the KNH Mbagathi IDU," she stated.
These changes come after a nurse at KNH was charged alongside one of the recipients of a coronavirus-free certificate at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.
Kemri has also announced it will no longer collect COVID-19 samples for testing, instead testing samples from designated testing centres, following claims that private facilities were charging for tests conducted at the agency using donated kits.
Government officials have downplayed the effectiveness of wider testing, while critics accuse them of hiding a shortage of test kits.
Mr. Peterson Wachira, the chairman of the clinical officers union, expressed concern over the decision not to test widely and systematically, despite its benefits in other countries like South Korea.
"The commitment by the government to move from targeted testing to mass testing was great. However, now with this backtracking of State institutions like KNH, which says it will not test suspected cases, we’re in trouble because a majority of cases are asymptomatic and lack of screening and testing sites, especially in public facilities, could be detrimental to the fight against COVID-19," he said.
