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Machakos Level 5 Hospital approved to test Covid-19


Machakos Level 5 Hospital has been approved to test coronavirus cases, Governor Alfred Mutua has said.

Speaking to Citizen TV on Wednesday morning, Dr Mutua said the county can test 330-400 test in a day.

TESTING KITS

“We are capable of having what we call runs; we can do 33 tests per runs which takes about an hour and a half. Testing capacity is about 330-400 per day working day and night,” Dr Mutua said.

When asked if he has confidence with the testing kits, Dr Mutua said he was willing to take the cue from Tanzanian President John Magufuli and try testing cows and chicken.

“I’m thinking that one of these is days I will go out to the shamba test a few cows and chicken and a few mangoes and send the samples in our labs in Kemri, our labs in South Africa, just to get quantified,” he said.

The governor further said it is too early for the government to reopen restaurants.

TOTAL LOCKDOWN

“Even before they reopen restaurants, we need to test all the people in the kitchen; we need to test all the people who are working at the restaurant, the security, those people washing dishes. I’m not going to go to a restaurant right now; I don’t trust the cleanliness of any restaurant right now, unless people have been tested and retested,” he said.

With the rising number of positive cases in the country, Dr Mutua said the country is not in a position to implement a total lockdown.

He said the country has in the past struggled to feed people during normal times so there was no way it would feed people during a pandemic.

“We are a poor economy that is not capable of feeding people during normal times. We will not be able to feed people during this time,” he said.