National Livestock Marketing Council Chair Dubat Amey talking to KNA in Garissa town.

National Livestock Marketing Council Chair Dubat Amey now want the national government to immediately start mass testing of Coronavirus among Garissa county residents. 

Amey who was reacting to yesterday’s revelation that two people from Dagahaley and Ifo in the vast Dadaab refugee camps had tested positive to the virus said that government should move with speed to contain the highly infectious disease from further spreading. 

Addressing the press in Garissa town today Amey said he has all along been fearing that the disease could be spreading among communities in the county given the upsurge of such cases in Wajir county that border Garissa to the North and Somalia to the East. 

“It is most likely that the two victims could have contracted the disease from either contacts in Wajir or Somalia or contacts from the two areas. This is a cause of alarm for all of us who understand the effects of the highly infectious disease,” Amey said. 

A number of residents have in the recent past called on the government to test area residents after it emerged that some people were escaping from Eastleigh that has recorded some of the highest cases in the country.  

Amey said that mass testing “was the only way to be sure that the disease is not with us until yesterday when we reported the first case.” 

I urge our leaders led by Governor Ali Korane and majority leader in the national assembly to come on the ground and carry out sensitization campaign and thereafter lead the residents in mass testing. 

 “As much as most of us are willing to be tested, the stigma associated with the highly infectious disease could be a setback in carrying out mass testing. It is only our leaders who can lead us in demystifying the disease and stop its spread,” he said. 

He said the government should heighten contact tracing of the two victims before they spread the virus even further.