Form 4 student tests positive for COVID-19, 4 teachers and 12 learners in isolation

By Patrick Mutisya in Machakos County

A male Form Four student at Muumandu Secondary School in Kalama Sub-County in Machakos County has tested positive for coronavirus disease.

Machakos Health CEC Dr. Ancent Kituku told K24 Digital that the student was discovered COVID-19 positive on Friday, October 23 after the returning learners were subjected to mandatory COVID-19 testing by the institution on October 12.

K24 Digital understands that the patient was released to undergo self-isolation at his Makueni home.

Four teachers, who came into close contact with the student, have been advised to proceed on quarantine until November 4, when their samples will be retested for COVID-19.

Twelve other learners, who interacted with the patient both at dormitory and in classroom, have also been placed under mandatory quarantine.

The school’s principal, Patrick Mwangangi, said the COVID-19 confirmation at his school “came as a shock”.

As of October 20, Machakos County had registered 1,416 cases of coronavirus infections. Only Nairobi (22,581), Mombasa (3,589), Kiambu (3,006), Kajiado (2,073) and Nakuru (2,048) had recorded more cases than Machakos.

The COVID-19 infection at the Machakos school comes three days after 15 persons, including teachers and students, tested positive for COVID-19 at Tononoka and Star of the Sea secondary schools in Mombasa, with a section of concenrned parents calling for the closure of schools to avert the spread of coronavirus at institutions of learning.

Kenya reported 631 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, October 23, pushing the country’s caseload to 47,843.

The new infections were discovered in 6,142 samples analysed between Thursday and Friday.

On Friday, the country also registered 14 fatalities arising from COVID-19, pushing Kenya’s death toll to 884.

On a positive note, 371 COVID-19 patients recovered from the disease, pushing the total number of recoveries in the country to 33,421.

Kenya has thus far tested 646,367 samples for COVID-19, Health ministry says.