What you need to know:- Operations at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital, which serves patients from six counties — Nakuru, Kericho, Baringo, Nyandarua, Samburu, and Narok — have been scaled down.
- The Aga Khan Hospital has warned its staff of the increased Covid-19 infections over the past few days.
Improper removal of personal protective equipment and the rise in the number of asymptomatic patients have been cited as the leading causes of Covid-19 infections among health care workers at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital.
Among 10 staff who tested positive, seven are nurses — who are the first contacts of patients.
“Ten medics have tested positive for Covid-19 out of whom seven are nurses at the outpatient antenatal clinic. One is a medical officer and two surgeons,” said Dr. Joseph Mburu, the Nakuru Level Five Hospital medical superintendent.
The official, however, said that all the medics who have tested positive are in a stable condition.
These revelations came as Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman reported 442 infections yesterday from a sample size of 5,327, raising the total infections to 40,620.
“This is not the time to lower our guard. The weapon to fight this is to follow the Ministry of Health rules. We must join hands to save our generation,” he said.
Supplemental oxygen
Operations at the Nakuru Level Five Hospital, which serves patients from six counties — Nakuru, Kericho, Baringo, Nyandarua, Samburu and Narok — have been scaled down. In the past two weeks, Covid-19 cases have been surging in the region, raising fears that the situation would worsen. Already, 16 Covid-19 patients are on supplemental oxygen at the hospital.
Nakuru County has recorded at least 1,260 cases of Covid-19, and many residents have thrown caution to the wind, with many going out without masks and disregarding social distancing requirements.
“The fight against the virus is not over. As an individual, you have the responsibility to observe the guidelines as the number of positive cases are bound to rise. Stop behaving normally in the midst of a pandemic,” warned Governor Lee Kinyanjui.
Containment measures
Mr Kinyanjui warned that the emerging attitude of “back to normal” is increasingly putting people at risk and the numbers are likely to increase after the lifting of containment measures.
The Aga Khan Hospital has warned its staff of the increased Covid-19 infections over the past few days with most of the patients exhibiting symptoms including loss of smell and taste sometimes in the absence of flu.
With this, Dr Irfan Samji, Co-chair infection Control Committee reminded the staff to continue having their masks even when social distancing and for those using the Personal protective equipment to ensure that they remove them before joining any meeting held within non-surgical spaces.
“Maintain adequate physical distance when consuming meals in a shared space and as much as possible continue to encourage a rota system of using the break rooms or consume meals in open-air spaces,” said the directive.
With safety in mind, the committee suspends all meals serving during meetings. This is in order to prevent any breach in the use of facemasks and physical distancing guidelines,” it states.