Dutch national suspected to have contracted coronavirus quarantined
A 27-year-old Dutch national, who arrived in the country ten days ago, has been quarantined at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital in Nakuru Town, as the government tightens measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Health authorities in Nakuru told the Nairobi News that the man was admitted in the isolation ward at the hospital on Sunday to avoid interactions with other people as tests are being conducted.
“It is true that we isolated the Dutch national on Sunday as a precautionary measure. We are treating him as a contact because he comes from a country where the Covid-19 has affected about 800 people,” said Nakuru health minister Dr Gichuki Kariuki.
According to Dr Kariuki, samples collected from the foreigner have been sent for testing and the report is expected to be out by Friday.
“We have taken samples for testing in Nairobi and therefore we will keep him for four days before we understand his status,” he said.
A medic at the hospital revealed that in the meantime, the suspected coronavirus patient is being monitored closely.
“Medical teams are closely monitoring the suspect,” said the source that sought anonymity.
It emerged that the Dutch national had been staying at a hotel in Narok before he travelled to Nakuru on Saturday and was booked at the Cathy hotel at the heart of Nakuru Town.
It is at the Nakuru hotel that he was picked by a Nakuru county government ambulance on Sunday and taken to the Nakuru Level Five hospital for isolation.
A source revealed to Nairobi News that the Dutch national may have been traced after he got in contact with a persosn suspected to have contracted the fast spreading Covid -19.
“He may have been traced and that is why he was immediately picked from the hotel and quarantined,” said the source.
This comes after the government confirmed that three cases have so far been reported in the country amid fears the new virus could further spread across the country crippling movements and the economy in general.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, in his media address on Sunday evening, confirmed two more cases of the deadly coronavirus after the first one was announced on Friday.
The head of state said the confirmations followed tests conducted on 27 people who came into close contact with the country’s first patient, a student who had arrived in the country on March 5 from the US through London.
And following the rise of the cases, the government announced a raft of measures to stem the spread of the virus including closure of all learning institutions countrywide and banning non-essential foreign travel.
Kenyatta also ordered the self-quarantine of all people who have entered Kenya over the last 14 days.
All counties have been on high alert since the first coronavirus case was reported on Friday.
The disease was first reported in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019 and has so far killed at least 6,000 people out of more than 170,000 people infected across the globe.
The symptoms of the virus include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath.