As of 1st June 2020, Taita-Taveta County had reported a total of 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19 comprising of both local and imported cases from neighbouring country. In the past week, Kenya had reported an upsurge in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. This was attributed to mass testing being done in the country. Truck drivers crossing from neighbouring countries had also contributed to this upsurge. Taita Taveta being a border county, is at the high-risk influx of COVID-19 cases from the neighbouring country. The high number of truck drivers crossing the border through the county also posed a high risk of disease transmission. Voi, a town in the county is also a major transit point from Mombasa; which had reported the second-highest number of positive cases in the country. The county also borders Kajiado County which at the time, had the 3rd highest number of confirmed cases in the country and also a major transit point for truck drivers.

The virus is highly contagious and so many cases and contacts are likely to be missed hence necessitating the need for enhanced active case search. Given the expected increase in the number of cases and contacts, there was need for additional epidemiological support to the county from the national government and other partners.

A team from FELTP was deployed to provide support to Taita Taveta County, in the coastal region of Kenya. The investigation was conducted between 3rd June 2020 and 13th June 2020.

Objectives of the activity:

• To support the county in active case search
• To support the county in conducting contact tracing
• To capacity build County Rapid Response team
• To support the county team in COVID-19 data management

Public Health Actions conducted by the Investigation and Response Team:

• Worked with the county team to update the line list and also included missing variables. Also updated the database of the contacts on follow up and generated daily contact tracing summaries.
• Established a contact tracing centre to be manned at the County headquarters in Voi and provided the team with phones.
• Analysed our findings and recommendations and shared the same with the county team chaired by the County Director of Health.
• Provided technical advice on the coordination of the response to the pandemic including recommending that the incident manager should be a technical officer and county should activate their incident command structure.
• Facilitated an online meeting between the county team and the national Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) where they were sensitized on uploading data to the national database.