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Coast well-prepared to weather second Covid wave — officials

 

Health workforce, hospitals, isolation units and other systems put in place to fight Covid-19 at the Coast can withstand a second wave of the disease.

Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Taita Taveta counties all have spare beds in their isolations units.  

Officials from all the coast counties are confident they can ride a second wave without many casualties.

Mombasa

One of the most affected counties, Mombasa has yet to declare a crisis and is working hard to keep the virus at bay.

However, some 97 of Mombasa health workers have tested positive for Covid-19 since the outbreak of the disease.

Two nurses died and medics this week threatened to go on strike over poor working conditions.

The county has so far reported over 4,000 positive cases.

At the Coast General Referral Hospital, the bed capacity is 150 against 42 admissions, according to Dr Salma Swaleh, the Public Health director.

As of Friday, the Intensive Care Unit which has eight beds, was however, full.

 “We have 171 admissions cumulative since the Covid-19 pandemic begun. Those that have been discharged are 96, while we have transferred two from the facility,” Swaleh said.

The county has also opened the Shimo La Tewa facility, which specifically deals with remandees. Some 75 patients are admitted.

At the private hospitals, Jocham has 18 admissions, Mombasa Hospital 15, with eight being in critical care and another eight using oxygen and ventilators.

Pandya Hospital has 11 admissions, of which four are critical, and three on oxygen while Aga Khan has six admissions.

Kilifi

In Kilifi county, 318 beds across seven centres have been dedicated to Covid-19.

Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi said the county also has six ICU beds at the Covid-19 isolation centre.

Malindi and Magarini subcounties have recorded the highest number of cases.

“In the last two weeks we have recorded over 150 cases in the two subcounties. This is worrying and we have an overstretched medical staff,” Kingi said.

The governor said plans are at an advanced stage to employ more medical staff to improve services.

“Most of our staff are on the frontline in combating the pandemic. We have other health services that need the same officers to attend to them that is why we want to employ more medical staff to bridge this gap,” Kingi said.

In collaboration with the national government, the county government has embarked on a campaign to enforce the containment measures.

From Thursday this week, the county government scaled down operations save for essential services. This is after six county officials were infected with the virus.

The county government has also started voluntary mass testing for all the county staff.

Kilifi county commissioner Kutswa Olaka said police officers and local administrators have heightened surveillance on business premises flouting the Covid-19 protocols.

“We have matatus that do not have sanitiser and carry more than the required number of passengers. We have started cracking the whip on those who go against these containment measures. We have also banned disco matanga and we will enforce the law on the maximum number of people to attend funerals,” Olaka said.

Kwale

Kwale county has 340 isolation beds, with 84 other beds at the Msambweni Covid-19 unit.

Governor Salim Mvurya said 13 ventilators are on stand-by at the Msambweni Covid-19 unit.

"We are prepared and if we ever have a critical condition that requires the use of oxygen, then we have enough ventilators at least for a start," he said.

The fully-fledged Covid-19 facility was built at Sh78 million. It can admit 60 patients.

Mvurya said his administration is partnering with the national government to open up an ISO certified Covid-19 laboratory at Msambweni Referral Hospital.

By Monday Kwale had recorded over 190 cases after 19 new positive tests were confirmed by the Ministry of Health.

The cases were from Msambweni (17) and Lunga Lunga (2).

Out of the 193 cases, 50 were Kwale residents.

The county chief said more than 1,000 community health volunteers were trained on how to provide home-based treatment for Covid-19 patients.

Taita Taveta

In Taita Taveta county, 314 beds were set up to fight coronavirus, according to Health Services executive John Mwakima.

The beds are at Moi County Referral Hospital in Voi, Wesu, Mwatate and Taveta hospitals. Others are in Rekeke, Mghange Mwanda, Maungu and Bura health centres.

“The department has now enough capacity to handle the Covid-19 patients in an event that there is a surge in infections,” Mwakima said.

He said at least 160 beds have been placed at the county’s main Covid-19 isolation ward at Mwatate hospital. Five ventilators and ICU beds are available for patients in critical condition.

“We have increased our workforce at the isolation ward in a bid to deal with earlier cases of understaffing. A total of 153 healthcare workers have also been contracted through the Universal Healthcare Coverage programme,” Mwakima said.

As of Friday, the county had 19 active coronavirus cases. Six cases are in the isolation ward at Wesu Subcounty Hospital while the rest are under home-based isolation.

County epidemiologist, Urbanus Kioko urged medical practitioners and the public to take precautions when providing direct and indirect care to all patients.

"Healthcare facilities have become transmission hotspots where medics unknowingly get infected and spread this virus to innocent people seeking medical services," Kioko said.

Lamu

Lamu county’s preparedness for massive Covid-19 numbers is uncertain.  

The county has three Covid-19 centres at the King Fahad Hospital, Mpeketoni and Faza subcounty hospitals.

Isolation centres are empty but lack basic ICU equipment.

The Lamu Health executive Anne Gathoni said recently that plans are underway to construct a 186-bed capacity isolation centre and hospital in the region.

Gathoni said the county is well-prepared to deal with the pandemic.

“We’ve put up several isolation facilities for coronavirus patients at the King Fahad hospital as well as Mpeketoni and Faza Subcounty hospitals. Health workers sensitisation has also been done and still ongoing,” Gathoni said.

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