Targeted mass testing for coronavirus is scheduled to commence in high-risk areas this weekend.
On Wednesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said the government has scaled up its testing capacities and will target specific areas. The mass testing will also focus on select areas and personnel such as the Kenya Ports Authority employees and the health care workers.
The Head of State said the testing capacity will rise to up to 2,000 tests per day.
This comes as the number of tests per day reduced drastically to 545 on Tuesday. Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said this was due to the lack of sample kits used in delivering Covid-19 results.
She said kits such as nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs are in short supply even though there are enough testing laboratories.
Last week, the government deployed 12,000 kits for the first phase of mass testing that will cover Nairobi, Mombasa, Mandera and Siaya counties.
