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Mama Lucy, South B hospitals are now isolation centres for Covid-19 patients


Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) has designated Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and South B Level 3 Hospital as Covid-19 isolation centres with numbers of positive cases soaring in Nairobi.

The two health facilities join Mbagathi Isolation Unit which is under Kenyatta National Hospital as three isolation centres in the capital with Covid-19 cases now above 1, 000 with informal settlements including Kibera, Mathare, Kawangware, Lang’ata and Eastleigh worst affected.

NEW WING

Already, a new 66-bed maternity wing at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital complete with an ICU, a High-Dependency Unit and general wards decongesting the main Wing of the hospital has been completed.

The new wing is set to be fully equipped at a cost of Sh145 million before it is opened end of June.

The county, as part of preparedness against coronavirus, have in place 58 quarantine facilities handed over to the new office by the Health Ministry.

NMS Director for Health Services Dr Josephine Kibaru Mbae said NMS, through the Public Service Commission, is also set to recruit 225 health workers as part of the 5, 000 additional health workers announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta in his May address, to add to the 2, 750 health professionals under the county.

She stated the health workers will be of different calibers including doctors, nurses and clinical officers and will be engaged on a three-year contract.

CONTAINMENT

“NMS is already coming up with a distribution plan so that once they get the letters they know where they are reporting,” said Dr Mbae.

The new office has also deployed health workers at all border points to identify and isolate any suspected Covid-19 case as part of management and containment programme in addition to dedicating Ngara Health Centre and South B Clinic for testing.

Dr Mbae further revealed that NMS has distributed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers worth Sh120 million with all workers now able to access at least two to three ply mask everyday depending on where they are stationed.

“We are also concentrating on mass testing exercise in the informal settlements so that any positive cases are isolated to avoid spread of Covid-19 within the community. The testing also aids in contact tracing of any persons who may be Covid-19 suspects,” she said.

NMS working together with the Ministry of Health two weeks ago launched an 11-day free Covid-19 mass testing, which ended on Sunday, targeting informal settlements in the capital.

FULLY EQUIPPED

“Despite focus being on the Covid-19 pandemic, NMS has also managed to keep health facilities open to city residents with the county health facilities fully equipped with drugs with the last distribution worth Sh173.5 million done in March, 2020,” said the director.

Community household registration exercise to map all households that need maternity care, child care, emergency medical treatment and chronic diseases is ongoing.

Beyond these, 1, 200 hand washing stations have been erected in various strategic locations in Kibra, Mathare, Mukuru and Korogocho to ensure access to proper sanitation.

A total of 1, 185 water points have been established in Kibera, 60 in Mathare 60 and 388 in Mukuru kwa Njenga. Moreover, drilling of 51 boreholes in different informal settlements is ongoing in collaboration with relevant government agencies, with 15 already complete.

Further NMS is enforcing water supply to Nairobi through use of Nairobi water bowsers particularly to the informal settlements and those regions affected by the shutdown of Sasumua water treatment plant.