I’m not pretending to have Covid-19 – Nairobi News

Journalist and talk show host Jeff Koinange hit out at people caiming that he was pretending to have contracted the Coronavirus. 

An irked Koinange lashed out at some people who were sending their reactions as he hosted the Jeff Koinange Live show on Citizen tv live from his home.

“By the way Daktari a lot of people are tweeting tonight saying ‘is this guy sick?’ ‘He doesn’t look sick! Am I supposed to be on an IV drip in an ICU or in a morgue for people to realise I have Covid-19? What is wrong with people?” he posed to his guest, psychiatrist Dr Frank Njenga. 

To which Dr Njenga responded: “Jeff, people are just people until they see their friend or neighbour… and we saw this in what happened in relation to HIV/AIDS. Until your cousin or your sister or your nephew, wife or even husband got infected or diagnosed it took years and years for people to understand HIV was a reality in our community.”

He added: “I have seen people say, ‘Hao wamelipwa sasa’ (they have been paid). It cannot be the case. But what they don’t know is that more than 80 percent of the people who get infected are completely asymptomatic, like you Jeff. They will say ‘how can he be Covid-positive and still looking strong?”

Koinange said he was planning to get a fresh test to establish if hs condition has changed, coming ten days after he tested positive for the novel Covid-19.

The journalist indicated that he had been in self-isolation and that his son and wife were safe.