Saturday July 18, 2020
By MANASE OTSIALO
Mandera Governor Ali Roba. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
One person died of Covid-19 in Mandera Fridau, with authorities raising the alarm over the increase in new cases in the county.
Governor Ali Roba said a second patient is in critical condition and is undergoing treatment while another was tested and turned Covid-19 negative. The Covid-19 death is the first in the North Eastern County and the patient was buried Friday.
Mandera had managed to flatten the curve after 18 patients who had turned positive were discharged.
Mr Roba attributed the surge in new cases to the reopening of the counties previously under lockdown.
Mandera stopped testing for Covid-19 in mid-June after it became very expensive for the county, the governor said.
“We were spending about Sh700,000 to charter a plane to collect samples and we did it about six times which was expensive for us,” he said.
Mandera is set to have its own testing machines after the Ministry of Health and Kenya Medical Research Institute issued the gadgets to the devolved unit.
"The machines are being transported to Mandera and would be here in next two days," Mr Roba said Friday during a briefing.
Mandera County has a hospital bed capacity of 306 with 10 ICU beds and 6 HDU beds.