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Inside empty quarantine centres
What you need to know:
- It emerged that most of the people arriving into the country as well as others who are testing positive are quarantining at home, especially if they are asymptomatic.
Only few people are proceeding to quarantine facilities after jetting into the country, the Nation has learnt.
Kenya has suspended direct flights to and from India as well as the United Kingdom (UK).
Besides the suspension, the government required all non-citizens from UK to quarantine for 14 days at their own cost at a government-approved centre before being allowed to settle or travel in the country.
Upon suspension of the India flights, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe also directed all passengers arriving from the country to undertake mandatory testing and those who test positive to isolate for 14 days at their own cost.
But, from 12 quarantine centers sampled out of 24 approved private quarantine facilities, only two had some people. At the Violet Serviced Apartments, only one guest was on board as of Monday, with another two clients having left on Sunday.
“I have received a few in the last several days. While I have a capacity of holding 10, only two are on board at any point,” said Violet Makena.
No guests
At the Trade Mark Hotel, in the Village Market, only ‘few’ quarantine clients have boarded in the last one week, said an official.
“We do not have guests at the moment, we had some until April 26. Most of the time we have only one or two at a time,” said Rajesh Kumar Jaiswal, the Royal Tulip Hotel general manager.
The situation was the same at the Hilton Garden Inn, Four Points Sheraton at the airport, Ufungamano Guest House, the Comfort Hotel, the Longview Suits with Restaurant-Karen, the Stand Leisure Hotel, Saab Royal Hotel and the Waridi Paradise.
The cost of full board quarantine in private facilities ranges from Sh4, 000 to Sh18, 000 in the various facilities.
The situation is a sharp contrast with last year when hundreds of people - citizens and non-citizens were quarantined.
Asymptomatic
It emerged that most of the people arriving into the country as well as others who are testing positive are quarantining at home, especially if they are asymptomatic, in accordance to Ministry of Health guidelines.
According to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, 79,443 Covid-19 patients who have recovered are from the home-based care and Isolation, out of the 109,077 total recoveries.
As of Monday, there were 6,614 home-based Covid-19 cases while 1,265 patients were admitted in various facilities-179 in the Intensive Care Unit.
Also read: Kenya exempts TZ from mandatory quarantine
Kenya has recorded 160,559 Covid-19 cases from 1,681,420 tests conducted from the time the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Kenya in March last year.
As the vaccination exercise continues, a total of 887,034 people in the country have been vaccinated, out of which 516,616 are aged 58 years and above, 158,168 health workers, 137,701 teachers and 74,554 security officers.
On Monday, only 137 Covid-19 cases were reported out of a sample size of 1,641, a positivity rate of 8.3 per cent.
