Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong has urged the national government to find alternative ways of transporting cargo to neighbouring countries, saying if more Covid-19 cases pile up in Busia County, the County health facilities can’t hold up. He said the County authorities will have to stop services in other hospitals in order to take Coronavirus patients there, “The locals also want to access health services in these facilities so it will be hard….the resources we have dictate that only 71 Coronavirus patients can be catered for at the designated Isolation facility.”
Alupe Isolation facility has been handling Covid-19 patients so far, and Busia County has recorded at least 110 cases so far, most of them truck drivers picked at Malaba and Busia. Ojaamong said he will speak to the Health CS Mutahi Kagwe and the chairman of the Council of Governors Wycliffe Oparanya over the issue, “Sometime back I said the government should stop trucks from transporting cargo, and instead use the railway or air transport,” he said.
The Governor urged truck drivers to conduct tests at their points of origin, noting that drivers are turning up at the border points without Covid-19 certificates. “Truck drivers haven’t been conducting their tests at the points of origin, and the pile up being experienced here is because of that.”