186 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 to date

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186 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 to date

Medical personnel have been at the front lines in the fight against the unseen enemy and now the Acting Director General Public Health Dr Patrick Amoth has said a total of 186 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 to date.

Amoth on Wednesday said out of that number, 102 are female while 84 male.

Amoth however dismissed claims that several healthcare workers were among those who had succumbed to the disease.

“So far no single healthcare worker has died as a result of the pandemic. The latest cases from Shalom hospital we can confirm they are stable and doing very well,” Amoth said.

He said the low number of health workers exposed to the disease can be attributed to good capacity building and provision of Personal Protective Equipment.

So far, Kenya has reported 6,673 cases after 307 more turned positive in the last 24 hours.

Another patients have been discharged.

Unfortunately, one more patient died with the total fatalities standing at 149.

Amoth said the number of cases are likely going to increase in the coming days as the country nears August and September which are deemed as peak months.

“We have however increased our testing capacity and with 150,000 testing kits we can test that same number,” he said.

Amoth said healthcare worker to patient ratio remains a challenge even as the government steps up measures to contain the disease.

Amoth said though they have recruited a number of health workers and public health officers, the current workforce is still overwhelmed.

“We need to have more health workers who will serve even in post-Covid-19 times," he said.

He said the ministry’s case management teams had developed strict guidelines on home-based care that have seen 600 patients discharged under the programme.

“The guidelines we can confirm are very robust and follow a strict criteria in selecting who qualifies for the home-based care,” Amoth said.

According to him, some other 120 patients who were undertaking the home-based treatment have been discharged.

He said the majority of those who qualify for the initiative are the middle and upper class.

“It is evident that it is practically impossible to undertake home-based care in the informal settlement. We are however reviewing on possibilities to including them in the plan,” he said.

Source: The Star





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