This archive report was first published on 7 May 2021.
On August 1, 2020, flights resumed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, but the Indian Covid-19 variant has brought Kisumu County to a standstill. The county has detected five cases of the variant, with one person succumbing to the disease.
According to Kisumu County Health Executive Prof Boaz Otieno, the five cases were detected among 58 people who tested positive for Covid-19 at Kibos Sugar Company. The individuals had recently returned from India for a project at the factory.
Prof Otieno clarified that the number of patients with the Indian variant were five and not eight as earlier reported, and that the drop was due to sequencing genes which takes long. He added that 58 other people were detected with Covid-19 at the factory, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in the county to 3181 after 32,300 tests.
Residents around the sugar factory had expressed fears of the spread of the Indian variant, but Prof Otieno reassured them that measures had been put in place to contain the virus. Sources at the factory intimated that more than 100 Indian nationals have been isolated as more tests are carried out to confirm if they have the strain.
Acting Health Director-General Dr Patrick Amoth said the five victims with Indian variant arrived in Kenya to beat the travel restrictions imposed on flights from India. He added that 18 other passengers from India who landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport also tested positive after antigen tests and will undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to check on the Indian variant.
India is currently witnessing the worst Covid-19 crisis in the world, with most hospitals reporting an overflow of patients in a critical state. Crematoriums in India are overwhelmed, with bodies being cremated along the streets.
