The mass testing for coronavirus in Old Town area in Mombasa was stopped Tuesday, May 5, after residents treated health officers with hostility, County Chief Public Health Officer, Aisha Abubakar, said.
Abubakar said the mass testing exercise for COVID-19 has now been taken to Likoni Sub-County.
In Old Town, only 197 persons were tested for the virus out of a target of 28, 000 across three days, said the chief public health officer.
“Apart from not showing up for the tests, the Old Town residents blocked medical personnel and ambulances from accessing the area. Some dwellers even threatened to kill the medical workers should they set foot in Old Town,” Abubakar told K24 Digital.
“As a result, we decided not to risk the lives of health workers. Currently, we are only sensitizing them (Old Town residents) on the importance of undergoing COVID-19 tests,” said Aisha.
Abubakar’s disappointment comes on the back of a Tuesday, May 5, revelation by Health Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe, that Old Town is one of the areas the government is treating as COVID-19 hotspots after producing 39 of Kenya’s 535 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Mvita Sub-County in Mombasa has yielded 50 coronavirus cases and several deaths.
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