NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 20 – Health Ministry has attributed delayed COVID-19 test results to laboratory protocols requiring batching of at least 94 samples before running tests.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi noted that the tests are not carried out on an individual case.
“The COVID-19 tests is not conducted on individual basis, we have to batch 94 tests and then run those tests as a set, and that is why we have delays,” she told reporters on Thursday.
Durinng the daily briefing on the status over the status of the coronavirus pandemic in Kenya Mwangangi said that the delays are being witnessed in both public and private facilities.
“It is important to know that this delay is not just in public facilities we have received discussions in private testing facilities and they too have challenges in being able to batch and ensure that samples can be collected and results received at the same time,” said Mwangangi.
She added that Kenya is not the only country witnessing the challenge where other countries have those tested waiting for a week to receive their results on the coronavirus disease.
“This is not just a Kenyan challenge, it is happening across the world, people from America who communicated with said they have been waiting for their test for a week,” she added.
So far, the health ministry has conducted a total of 383,132 coronavirus tests since Kenya reported its first coronavirus case on March 14.
The country’s death toll rose to 516 after 10 more patients succumbed to the disease, translating to a 1.6 per cent fatality rate.
Mwangangi announced the recovery of 257 patients, raising the total number of recoveries to 17,869.
On Thursday, 426 coronavirus cases were reported in the country, raising cases reported since March to 31,441.
