Kenya’s Covid-19 testing capacity has declined, raising concern that this has affected actual infection numbers.
So far, there has been slightly over a million tests conducted, with the Health ministry doing an average of 3,495 tests a day in the last three days.
Testing was at an all-time high between November 16 and 22 last year.
A senior officer working in one of the testing sites said that there is a shortage of extraction kits used in testing and that majority of the tests conducted are actually coming from private institutions.
Testing for Covid-19 involves inserting a cotton bud like swab into the cavity between the nose and mouth (nasopharyngeal swab) for 15 seconds and rotating it several times. The swabbing is then repeated on the mouth to make sure enough material is collected.