Coronavirus: Kenya to station mobile lab at Tanzania border to speed up virus testing

24 Mai 2020

Nairobi, Kenya, May 24  (Infosplusgabon) - Two mobile laboratories Kenya received from the East African Community (EAC) will be stationed in Namanga and Naivasha to help combat cross-border spread of coronavirus, Kenyan health officials have said.

Namanga is a border town on the Kenya-Tanzania border, while Naivasha, in central Kenya, is a dry port.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe says the laboratories are part of the regional efforts to contain the pandemic and other infectious diseases.

Part of the reason they are being deployed to the two towns is because they are frequented by truck drivers hauling cargo and goods out of or into Kenya.

The move will also speed up the screening process and boost trade in the region.

The Naivasha dry port serves an inland container depot (ICD) for cargo transported by the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from the Port of Mombasa.

The Mombasa Port serves a number of landlocked countries in the East African region - Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi - as well as parts of eastern DR Congo.

The EAC is a five-member regional economic bloc whose secretariat is in Arusha, Tanzania.

Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Sudan are members of the regional body.

The Mobile Laboratory Project is being funded by Germany through the German Development Bank (KfW) and the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNIT).

In addition to the mobile laboratories, Kenya also received mobile laboratory accessories, consumables, PPE, ICT (laptops, satellite phones) and electrical systems.

The EAC Regional Network of Public Health Reference Laboratories is a key pillar in strengthening the region’s capacity to diagnose infectious diseases.

The mobile labs have a combined capacity to support 2,000 tests per day.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/GHI/GABON2020

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