Chinese tycoon Jack Ma, owner and founder of the online sales platform Ali Baba and one of the big Asian investors in Kenya, has donated 25,000 Covid19 test pads to the Kenyan government. This was announced by Health Minister Muthai Kagwe during yesterday's press conference in which he updated the contagion situation in the country, which rose from 16 to 25 in a single day.
Data still not worrying, perhaps, if we were not in Africa.
In any case, the swabs that arrived yesterday morning with an Ethiopian Airways freighter will be used first of all to test the Kenyans and foreign residents who will arrive in Kenya today, the last day available to enter the country with scheduled flights. Together with the swabs also arrived 100 thousand masks and other important accessories for the prevention and containment of the virus.
As is well known, Kenya is now closed to international flights to and from the airports of Mombasa and Nairobi, but it does not exclude the return to the country of those who live or work there, through state flights, even if the Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna has so far excluded it.
Instead, the national airline Kenya Airways, which from today officially leaves all planes on the ground, has decided to give away the tickets available for the last New York-Nairobi flight that will arrive in the Kenyan capital today, after leaving the United States yesterday.
In case, those who return from abroad will be compulsorily tested and whatever the first result, they will be quarantined in suitable isolation facilities, at their own expense.
If necessary, the government has already identified some hotels in Nairobi and Mombasa that will act as self-quarantine facilities, offering discounted rates to customers. These include the Safari Park Hotel and the Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi.
In addition to the tests provided by Mr. Ali Baba, which belong to the traditional type that takes a few hours to produce the result, Kagwe pointed out that his government is negotiating with the Chinese government to also obtain a number of rapid tests for emergency cases.
"The traditional tests, used until now - explains our expert Mauro Saio - have complicated steps, as they take the patient's DNA and separate it, then reassemble it and dissect it through a process that can take several hours. While the rapid tests allow in less than an hour to get the answer. What Roche is producing will even be able to detect the virus after just 15 minutes.