Kenya to roll out Covid-19 rapid tests
A medical staff shows a rapid antigen test for Covid-19 in Germany.
Kenya is set to commence rapid testing for Covid-19 by the end of December, a move that is expected to increase the country’s testing capacity and make release of results faster.
A source at the Ministry of Health said that the acting director general for health Dr Patrick Amoth has already given the greenlight for this type of testing and guidelines for its use have been developed.
Dr Rashid Aman who is the Chief Administrative Secretary at the Health Ministry confirmed this stating that they are waiting for the World Health Organisation (WHO) donation to arrive so that they can deploy the tests throughout the country testing sites.
“We are expecting a consignment from the WHO and we will deploy as and when we receive them. We will however need some little time to validate them to see how well they perform,” he said.
He stated that the validation of the kits will be set against the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which Kenya has used since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the country.
“We would like to establish its concordance with the PCR which is the gold standard so as to determine their utility in various settings. This will definitely be an additional form of testing for us in the country,” he said.
