A shortage of Coronavirus testing kits halted plans by the Ministry of Health to screen police officers at Thika and Makongeni stations in Kiambu County.

The health ministry officers had organized to have all men in uniform at the two stations tested on Monday after two remandees, one from each station were last week confirmed to have the deadly virus.

The two Covid-19 patients were held in the cells from Wednesday last week when they were declared positive until Friday evening when they were evacuated for medical treatment at Kenyatta University Referral Hospital.

They are reported to have interacted with both police and their fellow remandees who are held at the stations for various crimes.

The officers swung into action and managed to screen all the 34 remandees by Saturday evening, an exercise that was followed by thorough fumigation of the station.

Also tested by last week were Thika Deputy Sub County Police Commander Daniel Kitavi, OCS Mathews Masaga and two other junior officers. 

The other officers were to be tested on Monday (today) but the exercise was paused after it emerged that the ministry did not have enough testing kits.

Francis Mogire, a public health officer who spearheaded the fumigation exercise had said that at least 25 police officers who were in contact with the remandees were on the line for screening.

“We have plans for test them all on Monday even as we insist Thika residents to continue observing the stipulated protocols to keep the virus away,” he had said on Saturday.

According to a public health officer from Thika Sub County who sought anonymity, the kits have not been availed by the Ministry of Health and that the exercise would be done at a later date.

By the time of going to press, Thika Sub County police commander Beatrice Kiraguri revealed that her officers were yet to be screened.

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