Kenya has confirmed five cases of the Indian COVID-19 variant, the Health Ministry has said.
Speaking during a media briefing on Wednesday, Health director-general Dr. Patrick Amoth said the five are Indian nationals working on a fertilizer plant in Kisumu.
Amoth said the five cases were detected on Thursday last week on arrival before the ban on flights from the Asian nation came into effect.
He indicated that the area has been reinforced to prevent the spread of the highly infectious and deadly variant.
“This variant has been picked in Kenya and because of connectivity, it was just a matter of time. You cannot be able to put barriers to prevent a virus from accessing your territory,” said Amoth.
“We picked this from a sample of Indian travelers who are doing some work in the western part of Kisumu. We have gone ahead together with the Kisumu county health team to do contact tracing.”
The official noted that the five Indians were living in a camp, making it easier to conduct contact tracing.
The devastating second COVID-19 wave in India has been blamed on the B.1.617 variant, which has seen the country’s caseload surge to more than 20 million.
The variant was picked up in Uganda last week on a citizen who returned from India.
The Africa CDC has warned that India’s intense outbreak was a reminder that the continent must stay vigilant.
“The variant will definitely go anywhere because you cannot put a wall and stop the virus from moving and what viruses do is to mutate so they change; sometimes they mutate and change and become weak, sometimes that change makes them stronger.”
Last week, Kenya banned flights originating from India for 14 days to prevent possible transmission of the variant into the country.
