Study design and sample collection
We adopted a cross-sectional active sentinel surveillance study design.
The study population included any person aged six months and above. At
each sentinel site, the first five patients meeting the case definition
of a suspected SARS-CoV-2 case were eligible for recruitment per day.
Each participant signed a written informed consent form in either
English, Kiswahili, or the local dialect; for minors, parents or
guardians supplied the written consent. Children aged between 13 and 17
were asked to assent to participate in the study after consent had been
sought from the caregiver. Socioepidemiological and clinicopathological
patient data from each case was recorded using a standardized
questionnaire including a unique identifier, demographics, symptoms, and
pre-existing conditions onto ODK collect Version 4.4.