The county government of Samburu has clarified that there is no COVID-19 case in the county as reported by Ministry of Health on Saturday.
Governor Moses Lenolkulal spoke at the Samburu County Referral Hospital in Maralal town when he asked the residents not to panic. He said single case that was reported by the Ministry of Health was Forole in Marsabit County and not Samburu.
“The case is not actually from Samburu, from reliable sources the contact has been traced to Forole in Marsabit and there is no cause for alarm’” he said.
The county boss urged the COVID-19 national command center to handle samples effectively to avoid raising unnecessary to raise anxiety. He also added that his administration has scaled up measures to handle the virus.
“We have procured five ICU beds fully equipped with ventilators and two hundred and fifty isolation beds. Our isolation centers are up and running we just need to strengthen a few logistical issues,” Lenolkulal said.
The equipment will be stationed in Samburu North and Samburu East for purposes of referral in the event that a COVID-19 case is reported. The ICU center is the headquarters in Maralal. Samburu county has sent between 200 to 300 samples to laboratories in Nairobi for COVID-19 testing since Kenya reported the first three cases in March 2020.
“We are pushing to have a testing center here in Samburu, at some time we may need testing centers to be fully based at the counties because it takes time to get results after sending samples to Nairobi for testing,” he said.
A recent survey revealed that only five out forty seven counties are fully equipped to handle Covid-19 with process slowly turning into a scandal.
Some governors lied that they had attained 300-isolation-bed capacity required by the national government and MoH when they had not.
Up to 26 counties had not reported their situation before the summit meeting chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta week.
The shocking revelation not only puts dishonest governors on the spot but also lands them in an awkward situation as the country struggles to deal with covid-19.