Busia Governor, Sospeter Ojaamong has raised concerns over the rising number of Covid-19 in the county.
Of the 100 samples taken from Kolanya Boys High School in Teso North, 60 turned out positive with students accounting for 52. The rest of the cases were six teachers with two support staff.
Addressing the press at the County Headquarters on Tuesday Governor Sospeter said the positive cases have been isolated with the school and medical personnel has been deployed to manage them.
The governor noted that the rest of the school fraternity have been quarantined within the institution.
“Since the first case was diagnosed in April 2020, Busia has reported a total of 1,683 positive cases out of 75,564 tests carried out,” Ojaamong said.
The governor said the county’s isolation centers have handled a total of 2,016 patients with most of who have been discharged, leaving only two.
The governor said death cases were spread in the county as follows; Bunyala sub-county 4, Butula 2 with Nambale, Samia, Teso North, and Matayos recording one death each.
Governor Ojaamong revealed that the county has been conducting tests at Alupe Kenya MRI CDC laboratories, Busia County Referral Hospital, and KEMRI CDC Kisumu.
He however noted there were a number of challenges that the county was experiencing including, delay in the release of test results, inadequate transport, frequent breakdown of testing machines, inadequate surveillance support, inadequate test kits and reagents, and inadequate testing staff
“Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Busia County has suffered from massive effects of the pandemic. The County hosts two border towns of Busia and Malaba which are the exit and entry points of over 1,500 commercial trucks that cross the border daily,” the governor said
“Due to the cross border requirement for the drivers of these vehicles to be tested before crossing into either side of the border, traffic jam has been witnessed extending more than 40 km.
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“This has increased the risk of not only spreading the Covid-19 infection into the surrounding community but has also posed other public health risks.”
The pandemic has also had a negative effect on trade, exposing residents to poverty since businesses remained closed during the peak of the disease.
 “In the past few weeks, Busia County has experienced an increased number of positive cases signaling the second wave of infection. In this phase we have seen community spread spiking,” Ojamoong added.
