The government has put Kericho GK Prison on lockdown after 48 people at the correctional centre tested positive for the coronavirus.
Panic has gripped Kericho as the prison is in the middle of the town.
The prisons and county government health departments have begun looking for people who came in contact with the patients.
The news came as Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi announced 322 new infections and 16 deaths in the country on Friday.
Her counterpart Rashid Aman warned Kenyans against complacency because of the seemingly reducing new infections.
“We may report numbers that give us an illusion that our cases are coming down but we must look at this in the context of the sample size that has been tested,” Dr Aman said at Kenya Ports Authority, Mombasa, while receiving personal protective equipment from the European Union.
Three quarters of Covid-19 deaths in Kenya are male while the majority of the infections are in Nairobi, with 420 for every 100,000 people. The national average is 66 per 100,000.
Kiambu has 2,335 infections, Mombasa 2,260, Kajiado 1,726, Machakos 1,125, Busia 965, Nakuru 713 and Uasin Gishu 432.
The other regions with more than 200 cases are Migori, Kericho, Nyeri, Garissa and Kisumu.
In Kericho, some 75 samples were taken from prisoners and warders for testing and 48 turned positive.
“The news is scary because the prison is in the town centre and sandwiched by the main market and police station. It is also just a few metres away from the county assembly,” Mr David Bett, a local trader, told the Nation.
The cases, the highest recorded in Kericho County since the outbreak of coronavirus in Kenya in March, raised the number of people in quarantine to 113, with 61 of them in isolation centres while 52 are under home-based care.
“Since the outbreak, we have tested 2,689 samples out of which 213 turned positive,” Governor Paul Chepkwony said on Friday. “Two cases tested positive posthumously while 63 have recovered.”
Out of the ones who have tested positive in the last four months, some 32 have been referred to their home counties for management as they were on transit when the samples were taken.
The Nation could not immediately establish the number of inmates and wardens at Kericho prison. Authorities refused to give the figure, citing security reasons.
Sotik GK Prison in neighbouring Bomet County and local police stations will, in the meantime, be used to hold new convicts and remandees.
The development comes on the backdrop of suspension of services at Sotik, Bomet and Kericho law courts after officers from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and the Judiciary tested positive of the illness last week.
Four officers at the Kericho courts, two in Sotik and one in Bomet, who tested positive for the virus, have been isolated.
Samples have been taken from prosecutors, magistrates and other judiciary officers for testing but results had not been released by yesterday.
Kericho Health Services executive Shadrack Mutai said measures to contain the spread of the virus have been heightened in the entire county.
“It is important for Kericho residents to observe the guidelines on social distancing, hand washing, wearing face masks and using hand sanitiser to contain the disease,” Dr Mutai said.
A Bomet-based advocate told the Nation that congestion in prisons and police cells could contribute to the fast spreading of the virus.
Lack of reagents has been a major impediment to testing of coronavirus at the Kericho Walter Reed/Kemri centre, with Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe saying two weeks ago that it is a nationwide problem.
“We would have tested more but the shortage of reagents is the hurdle. It is our hope that the government will address the issue soon,” Prof Chepkwony said.
It was opened by US ambassador Kyle McCarter on January 30 and can test 8,000 samples daily but has only tested 5,200 in the last four months.
