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Africa News of Wednesday, 12 February 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

COVID-19: Kenya to commence testing

South Africa carried out COVID-19 test for over 60 people South Africa carried out COVID-19 test for over 60 people

Kenya will no longer have to send out samples again for testing patients developing symptoms of the deadly COVID-19.

The deadly coronavirus was officially named COVID-19 on Tuesday by the World Health Organisation - WHO, after the death toll rose to over 1,000 with over 43,000 recorded cases.

According to the acting Director-General of Health Patrick Amoth, laboratories under the National Influenza Centre, hosted at the National Public Health Laboratories and Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), will begin testing samples immediately.

“We received the kits on Sunday and will now be able to test for the new coronavirus,” Dr Amoth told the Nation.

Test samples were previously sent so South Africa because the country's laboratories lacked the necessary “reagent kits”.

Confirmatory testing for such new viruses requires a sophisticated molecular test called PCR (polymerase chain reaction), which identifies the virus in a sample using specific ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequence referred to as probes, that are an exact match to the virus, Dr Kalebi explained further.

He added: “Setting up the laboratories to test was not a difficult process since local research laboratories already have the equipment to run molecular assays — used to analyse genetic material — what has been missing are the key probes and reagents”.

With these now available, he said, testing will only take 24 hours.

Daily Nation