Huge boost as Kenya gears up for mass testing drive

To aid in the government's aggressive track-test-and-isolate policy, Kenya has received nearly 40,000 testing kits as the country's confirmed cases hit 225 after nine more people tested positive on Wednesday.

One more person also died, bringing to 10 the total number of fatalities, a 4.6 percent fatality rate. Health Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe said the ministry had received a consignment from Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.

Mr Kagwe listed what was received as follows: "18,900 swabs and viral transport medium, 18,912 extraction kits, 3,790 medical disposable protective clothing, ventilation machines, thermometer guns".

These will be critical to the mass testing drive that the government announced on Tuesday. Swabs and transport media are used to ensure that when the samples are collected from people, the virus is kept active and protected from environmental damage until they reach the lab.

Mr Kagwe had said that while the laboratory capacity in Kenya is adequate, reagents and the collection of samples had dampened efforts to test more people. He attributed this to the fractured global procurement chain.

WHO's message

Luckily, with support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and countries like France and Germany, Kenya has tested over 8,500 samples and 803 in the 24 hours leading up to Mr Kagwe's press briefing.

The generosity of these countries has boosted the country's testing capacity. Since March, there have been global shortages even of the swabs, which are made by companies in just two countries - the US and Italy.

Speaking to UK daily The Guardian, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics Chief Executive Officer, Catharina Boehme said US companies have declared that they can't supply anyone outside the US. The Geneva-based non-profit is a WHO-collaborating centre.

Three US companies making PCR test; Abbott, Hologic and Cepheid were told by their government not to export them. This left Africa, which uses their technology in HIV tests, with a single supplier, Roche in Switzerland.

With the tests available, Mr Kagwe is heeding the call made by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Dr Tedros said: "You can't stop this pandemic if you don't know who is infected. We have a simple message for all countries; test, test, test. Test every suspected case. If they test positive, isolate them and find out who they have been in close contact with up to two days before they developed symptoms and test those people too."