Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)(1). COVID-19 remains a significant public health problem globally. As of October 2021, over 160,000,000 cases and 2,800, 000 deaths had been reported globally, while in Kenya, over 150,000 cases and 2200 deaths had been reported.

The COVID-19 mutations have been noted to be of major concern by the WHO. A heavily mutated variant (Omicron) was detected in South Africa in early November and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). Evidence has shown several mutations may have an impact on how Omicron behaves. There was also consistent evidence that Omicron was spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant in countries with documented community transmission, and a doubling time of 2-3 days. The overall risk related to this new variant remained very high. The highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 was driving an unprecedented surge of infections globally. South Africa reported 2,800 new infections in mid-November 2021.

With omicron, the country saw a steep rise of new corona infections from the daily average of 500 compared to previous weeks. With the declaration of omicron as a variant of concern by WHO, Kenya issued a travel advisory for passengers traveling from South Africa to be screened at all points of entry. Later on, in November 2021, the Ministry of Health through the Director-General of Health requested Kenya FELTP to deploy residents to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport(JKIA) in response to the travel advisory. The FELTP program therefore deployed 20 cohort 17 residents of the Advanced level to support Port Health at JKIA. This activity started on the 29th November 2021 and would be completed on the 9th of January 2022.

Objectives of the activity:

• To support COVID-19 data management at the Port Health
• To screen passengers for COVID-19 disease