Kisumu County Government has secured isolation rooms and deployed public health officers at the Kisumu International Airport to monitor patients arriving at the facility as the Coronavirus scare widens worldwide.
The move comes after a Kenya Airways passenger who arrived from Guanzhou, China with flu-like symptoms was quarantined at Kenyatta National Hospital over fears of contracting coronavirus disease.
Kisumu County Director of Public Health and Sanitation, Dr. Fredrick Oluoch, said similar measures have been put at all points of entry into the lakeside county which borders Kenya and Uganda through Lake Victoria to ensure that any case of the deadly virus is detected.
Dr. Oluoch said that the department has also put on standby enough ambulances for quick evacuation of patients to referral facilities.
“We have set up isolation rooms and centers where such victims shall be taken for screening and further action,” he said.
Medical personnel at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral (JOOTRH) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), he said, were on high alert for a quick response.
He added that public health officers were in touch with officials at the airport who were in charge of control tracing for quick isolation of suspected cases.
Dr. Olouch said health workers in high-risk areas in the county have been sensitized and equipped with the necessary protective gear.
Coronavirus was reported last week in China where about 304 people have died from the virus.
Dr. Oluoch advised area residents to be on the lookout for symptoms of the disease which included a runny nose, headache, cough, diarrhea, sore throat, fever and generally feeling unwell.
