Nairobi Women’s Hospital opens Covid-19 isolation centre in Kajiado

The Nairobi Women’s Hospital has opened a 34-bed Covid-19 isolation and treatment centre in Ongata Rongai, boosting Kajiado County’s preparedness for the pandemic.

Officials said the facility would offer self-quarantine, isolation and healthcare services to patients.

County health and sanitation chief officer Eddah Wakapa said the new facility provides extra bed space for the county at a time when hospitals bed spaces are running out in the county due to an increase in Covid-19 hospitalisations.

“This facility will go a long way in supplementing our efforts towards managing the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the chief officer.

“The hospital has qualified and trained medical personnel to handle Covid -19 cases at the centre and has put all preventive measures in place to ensure staff safety,” said Michael Walli, the hospital director.

The facility also offers online medical services to minimise human-to-human contact through a virtual platform.

On June 11, President Uhuru Kenyatta convened a meeting with governors to deliberate on a set of measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 ahead of a gradual reopening of the economy.

Through a statement, the Presidency said the national and county governments had set a target of 300 isolation beds for each county to deal with the rising cases of infections.

According to the Council of Governors, only five counties had met the isolation bed capacity requirement by Wednesday.

A recent study by the Kenya Medical Research Institute team shows the country urgently needs an additional 1,511 intensive care unit (ICU) beds and 1,609 ventilators to cater for a possible one million Covid-19 cases.

Currently, Kenya has only 537 ICU beds and 256 ventilators.

The country hit 4,257 confirmed Covid-19 cases after it recorded 213 new infections Thursday. The figure is the highest Kenya has recorded so far since reporting the first case in mid-March after testing a sample of 6,024.