Meru health officials have embarked on a sensitisation campaign to educate residents on their role to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Speaking to reporters in Imenti South subcounty, area health promotion and education officer Joyce Mbiti said the drive was informed by the alarming rate of new infections.
Meru confirmed its first case in May. They had risen to 85 by August. In September and October, the cases rose to over 300, a fact Mbiti said was worrying.
She urged the public not to assume Kenya had contained the virus, warning of a serious second wave of the contagion.
The officer said it was regretted that some people feel the virus is being used as a cash cow by authorities. She appealed to residents to trust information from the state on the pandemic.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe last week said the second wave was more serious with between 15 and 20 per cent of cases being severe and calling for hospitalisation.
About 92 per cent of those infected during the first wave were asymptomatic.
Mbiti urges residents to adhere to containment measures including wearing face masks, sanitising hands and washing hands with soap and running water and keeping social distance.
She urged public transport operators to ensure social distancing in their vehicles.
“Community transmissions have contributed a lot in increasing the number of cases in Meru county for the simple reason that many people among them political and community leaders have poisoned the public into trivialising information on the second wave of the virus,” Mbiti said.