With the porous Somalia border to the east and Ethiopia to the north, Mandera County is struggling to contain the spread of Covid-19.

In a move to address the challenge, Mandera North and Mandera East sub-counties were pooled together and are now being served by Mandera County Referral Hospital located in Mandera East.

There is a 14-bed isolation ward at Mandera County referral Hospital, while a 64-bed rehabilitation centre in the town was turned into an isolation ward.

Mr Arai said Mandera County Referral Hospital remains the county's main isolation centre in the entire county, with a population of 867,457.

"We have assigned three ambulances to pick up confirmed cases from all our quarantine facilities and take them to Mandera Referral Hospital for management purposes," Mr Arai said,

Mandera has hired private facilities, including hotels and lodges, homes and a private school, to serve as quarantine facilities and to host health workers in the front line.