This archive report was first published on 21 June 2020.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread in Kenya, concerns are growing over the safety of frontline workers. In a worrying development, three police officers at Kamukunji Police Station in Nairobi have tested positive for the virus, while at least 30 nurses at Pumwani Hospital are in quarantine.
According to Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman, the first positive case at the Kamukunji station was recorded on Friday afternoon, prompting testing of all the police officers there. One of the three officers is a Directorate of Criminal Investigations detective, who was confirmed positive at Aga Khan University Hospital and is currently under home-based care with his three children at his Ruiru home.
While these are the first cases of police officers to test positive, 83 healthcare workers have so far contracted the virus, and tens of others, including those at Pumwani, are quarantined, having come into contact with patients confirmed to be Covid-19 positive.
Health Director-General Patrick Amoth added that prisons and remand facilities, which are also high-risk areas, now have proper protective equipment, together with isolation and quarantine centres, to avoid the risk of exposing inmates who live in large numbers in confinement.
On Friday, the Ministry of Health announced an increase in the national tally of Covid-19 cases to 4,478 after 104 more people tested positive in 24 hours. Dr Aman said that 36 people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the number of recoveries to 1,586. Two people died of the virus, taking the national death toll to 121.
Distressed Kenyans are encouraged to access telecounselling services through the hotline 1199719, which is operational round the clock. The Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union has called on healthcare workers receiving PPE to be vigilant and reject any that they deem to be of low quality.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Refugee Agency is concerned about the spread of the coronavirus in refugee camps after a five-year-old child died in the Dadaab refugee complex. Dadaab now has 11 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.
