Diaspora Priest Tests Positive for Covid19 After Leading Burial Service

Diaspora Priest Tests Positive for Covid19 After Leading Burial Service

A search is ongoing for individuals who came into contact with a Rome-based Catholic priest who officiated a burial service in Siaya County on March 14, 2020.

This is after the priest,  who arrived in Kenya from Rome, Italy on March 11, tested positive for the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Siaya County Commissioner Michael Ole Tialal told reporters on Monday, March 23, that the priest led a burial mass in Ugunja, Siaya.

The priest is also believed to have spent time with his relatives in Ugunja, where he comes from.

A medical practitioner dressed in protective gear at the Coronavirus isolation and treatment facility in Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020.

The Siaya County Emergency Response team was activated to undertake the contact tracing.

The priest also reportedly spent some time with a close family member in Nairobi upon his arrival before travelling to Siaya by bus.

Tialal urged residents to stay calm and to follow the precautionary measures even as he stated that the team put in place was well equipped to deal with the situation.

The news from Siaya is the latest report on the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic to come out of the counties, with the Kilifi Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi also revealed to have tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, March 22.

Saburi will face prosecution after he allegedly refused to self-isolate after returning to the country from Germany via Amsterdam on March 6, 2020.

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya also announced on Monday, March 23 that three county officials who had traveled to Italy were put under mandatory isolation after they failed to isolate themselves.

In Uasin Gishu, County Assembly Speaker David Kiplagat sought to calm down residents’ fears after it emerged that fifteen MCAs had recently returned to the country from Dubai. Kiplagat asserted that the ward representatives had entered self-isolation in line with the recommended directives.

” All of them are in good health and have now been given a clean bill of health to interact with members of the public under the current restrictions communicated by the government,” he wrote on Facebook while revealing that the second batch of seven members had entered self-isolation on March 14 after their arrival.

A health practitioner in protective gear at Coronavirus treatment and isolation facility in Mbagathi District Hospital, Nairobi on Friday, March 6, 2020.

By MARTIN SIELE

Diaspora Priest Tests Positive for Covid19 After Leading Burial Service