A school in Busia County has recorded nearly 60 Covid-19 cases just three weeks after classes resumed.
County officials said on Tuesday that 52 students, four teachers and two support staff from Kolanya Boys Secondary School tested positive for the virus.
Photo credit: Brian Ojamaa | Nation Media Group
The shocking number of infections was confirmed by Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong, who announced that the cases were from 100 samples that were randomly picked by public health teams for testing.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, the county boss said the positive cases have been isolated within the school and the rest of the school fraternity quarantined within the premises to contain spread of coronavirus.
"Medical staff have been deployed to the school to manage the situation," he said.
Busia chief officer for health services Dr Isaac Omeri said all the patients are in stable condition at an isolation centre.
“We are closely monitoring their condition and have put them on treatment and they are responding well,” said Dr Omeri.
Students of Kolanya Boys on November 3, 2020.
Photo credit: Brian Ojamaa | Nation Media Group
He said the cases were detected after public health officials carried out random tests at the school.
“Our teams are currently carrying out surveillance at the school to establish how the infections spread to the school and take the necessary measures to contain the situation,” said Dr Omeri when contacted on phone.
Governor Ojaamong said a total of 2,016 cases have been handled at the county's isolation centres.
In Busia County, a total of 10 fatalities have been recorded.
"In Bunyala Sub-county, we have lost four people, Butula (2), with one case in Samia, Teso North, Nambale and Matayos Sub-counties respectively," he said.
The infections were reported as six students and three members of staff tested positive for Covid-19 at Jamhuri High School in Nairobi. They are self-isolating at home after they took the test last week.
Following the cases, all students and staff were tested yesterday and their results are expected tomorrow (Wednesday).
The Nairobi regional director of education said that the students will be in isolation for fourteen days.
“We haven’t had other reports of Covid-19 in Nairobi. We’re lucky because at first we thought it might be much worse,” he said.
