Kagwe asks counties to prepare for fourth wave of COVID-19
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has called on Kenyans to be alert for a possible fourth wave of COVID-19 virus in the coming weeks urging counties to enhance capacity in health facilities.
Mr Kagwe noted that currently, hospitals lack adequate Oxygen capacity therefore the country may not be able to withstand the wave.
“We are asking county governments to boost their oxygen capacity, to do piping at their facilities’ wards. Prepare with the supply of oxygen beyond what we currently have,” urged the Health CS.
The country is also facing a more lethal Indian variant that has been reported in at least 28 people, which appears to have shaken the country’s healthcare system.
“And the Indian variant is more dangerous than the South African variant, or the British variant that we have been dealing with. So we need to be extra careful,” said Mr Kagwe.
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The call comes when the country shows significant change in the number of positive cases of COVID-19 reported on a daily basis in the month of May with the positivity rate averaging under 10 per cent.
In the last 24 hours, a total of 431 people tested positive for the virus from a sample size of 5,846, taking the total confirmed coronavirus infections in Kenya to 169,356. The positivity rate was 7.4 per cent.
The country’s death toll now stands at 3,097 after 10 people succumbed in the last 24 hours, all of them being late deaths reported from facility record audits conducted within the last one month.
Further, 31 patients recovered from the virus; 23 from the home-based and isolation care program, while eight were discharged from various health facilities countrywide, taking the total recoveries to 115,844.
Meanwhile, Kisumu county is still on red alert as continues to report high cases of COVID-19 infections.
Kisumu County Health Minister Boaz Otieno says the outbreak has escalated over the past 10 days putting all the blames on the county’s residents for disregard of containment restrictions.
“We are a major transmission zone to date,” said Mr Otieno.
The increase in infections comes as Kisumu County prepares to host an Independence Day ceremony on June 1 that President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to attend.
