Kagwe reveals Kenya’s head start in fight against Covid-19
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on Monday said that Kenya was lucky to have many boarding schools unlike other countries.
His remarks came after he was asked what measures the country is taking in case there will be more people who will need to be quarantined as the cases increase.
“Everything remains on the table. We are seeing other countries putting up stadiums. We have boarding schools which can take up to 300k capacity. This is our advantage. There are airport hangars too and if it is necessary we shall activate them,” said Mr Kagwe.
On Monday, the Ministry of Education said they were working with county governments to identify at least 20 boarding schools in each devolved unit which will be converted into makeshift hospitals for Covid-19 patients should cases recorded in the country spike.
Deputy President William Ruto at the same time said the boarding schools would be well equipped to be used as health facilities in case of a crisis.
The directive will see the country have at least 900 schools used as isolation and treatment centres.
“The government has directed the ministry of education to work with all county govt’s to identify at least 20 boarding schools per county to be prepared/equipped for use as health facilities as part of Covid-19 preparedness,” the DP said in a tweet.
At the moment, isolation centres have been set aside at national referral and county referral hospitals countrywide.
Ruto’s remarks on the number of schools to be identified to boost government’s preparedness for coronavirus came a day after the Health CS said the government was mapping boarding schools and airport hangars for use as isolation facilities for coronavirus.
On Sunday, Mr Kagwe said that it was likely that the countries health facilities can be overrun by demand.
Kagwe said the government will also increase the number of makeshift Intensive Care Unit beds by about 1,000.
Currently, Kenya has about 400 ICU beds.
He added that the World Bank has also donated 250 ventilators, and the government was trying to buy some more from abroad but was facing a shortage.
Kenya has so far had one fatality and 50 confirmed coronavirus cases since its outbreak on March 13. Global deaths now stand at over 37,000.