This archive report was first published on 25 June 2020.
Kenya's counties are racing against time to meet the COVID-19 isolation beds target ahead of the July 6 reopening of the economy. According to the Council of Governors, only 6,898 isolation beds are ready, against the 30,500 target set as a prerequisite for lifting COVID-19 containment measures.
Speaking during a virtual meeting of the National and County Governments Coordinating Summit, CoG Chairperson Wycliffe Oparanya said only 12 counties had met the 300 per county isolation beds threshold. However, he assured that the remaining counties were on course to meet the target within the remaining period of the month.
As of now, 36 counties have a cumulative sum of 343 beds, while 28 counties have a total of 337 ventilators. On human resources, Governor Oparanya reported that a total of 16,914 health personnel had been trained on COVID-19 management, including 54,449 community health volunteers.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who chaired the meeting, said the decision to reopen the country's economy would be informed by the level of preparedness by the county governments to COVID-19 infections. He emphasized that county readiness to respond to new imported cases of infection would largely determine the nation's readiness to reopen.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, who also addressed the meeting, advised against the reopening of the economy before the response preparedness threshold agreed upon is fully met. He cited countries that had rushed to reopen their economies without proper COVID-19 containment protocols in place, only to experience an upsurge in new infections.
