Truck drivers isolated at Taveta-Holili border
The one-stop border point at Holili in Taita Taveta County. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The drivers who were returning to the country after delivering cargo in Tanzania tested positive.
Two truck drivers have been isolated at a facility in Taita Taveta County after they tested positive for coronavirus.
The drivers who were returning to the country after delivering cargo in Tanzania were tested at the Taveta-Holili One Stop Border Post and are currently under observation at Rekeke isolation centre.
County Executive for Health John Mwakima said the two cases were reported on Saturday and immediately taken to isolation.
The drivers are in stable condition but their health is being closely monitored by medics.
Over 500 tests have so far been conducted at the border facility.
Mr Mwakima said two more truck drivers tested positive for the virus today after random screening along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway. The CEC said the two were tested at Miasenyi where the county has mounted a road block to screen travellers getting into the county.
He said the team has already located one driver who isolated in Mombasa County.
"The second driver was also traced and is said to be at Machakos on his way back to Mombasa. We will advise him to go to the nearest isolation centre," he said.
The Taveta cases are the first in the county after another truck driver who was isolated at Moi County Referral Hospital in Voi turned negative after he was reported to have tested positive for the virus in Uganda.
The driver was said to have received a call from Ugandan authorities informing him that his results for coronavirus had turned positive.
Mr Mwakima said the patient has been discharged after a second test to confirm his status also turned negative.
Even as the government tries to protect citizens by minimising cross border infections, locals along the Taveta-Holili border say people are still using illegal routes to get into the country.
The government though county commissioner Rhoda Onyancha and governor Granton Samboja urged the communities along the porous border to remain vigilant and report any suspicious individuals who may be using panya routes to get into the country.
"Nyumba Kumi elders must work with health and security officers to ensure that these people are nabbed," Mr Samboja said.
Those arrested are placed under mandatory quarantine at various facilities in Taveta Sub-county.
