This archive report was first published on 8 May 2020.
Kenya's Ongoing Battle Against Coronavirus ¶
On Friday, March 13, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced Kenya's first coronavirus case from the steps of Harambee House.
Since then, the country has been engaged in a 56-day battle with the invisible and deadly coronavirus.
Kenya has witnessed weeks of missed targets, recoveries, tens of deaths, and an on-and-off strategy in a fight plagued by delayed mass testing and rising community infections.
After a month of announcing infection numbers from people who had been in mandatory quarantine, the virus sneaked into communities on April 23, when confirmed cases rose to 320.
Of the 17 people who tested positive, 15 had no known history of travel outside the country.
The biggest hurdle to the war on the virus is testing, with the World Health Organisation warning that lack of it will be 'like fighting a fire blindfolded'.
Kenya is doing at an average of 50 tests per every positive case, compared to Uganda and Rwanda, whose numbers are 333 and 100, respectively.
South Africa had done more than 270,000 tests by Thursday, highlighting the need for increased testing in Kenya.
Testing helps understand the magnitude of the problem and is also crucial when it comes to deciding what measures to take.
However, the ministry's testing plan has been plagued by delays, with less than 30,000 people having been tested, and the highest number a day being 1,564.
The plan to test 200,000 to 300,000 people by the end of April has been postponed, with the government now saying it will have tested 250,000 people by the end of next month.
Economist Kwame Owino faults the government's testing plan, suggesting that people be encouraged to take the tests, with those who do entered into a lottery with a 1:100,000 possibility of winning a prize.
His solution would cost the government just Sh47 million to conduct tests equal to the size of Kenya's population.
Kenya's battle against the virus is not just about testing limitations, but also providing personal protective equipment, with the ministry saying it has distributed and delivered 3,682.
Doctors' unions and associations say the country needs 8.2 million surgical masks, 4.1 million N95 masks, disposable gowns, caps, hazmat suits, shoe covers, and face shields, as well as 92,000 goggles.
Some 20 county governments have bought 315 complete personal protective equipment and 30,000 assorted gear, the Council of Governors said on Wednesday.
Kenya also faces a shortage of intensive care units, with 518 beds in 79 public and private hospitals, but only 448 in use.
The ministry says the country has a shortage of 190 Covid-19 ICU beds.
Kenya has been lucky because 70 per cent of the coronavirus patients show no symptoms, meaning they do not require much medical care, let alone ICU beds.
There are 297 functional ventilators in the country, but only 90 are available in public hospitals.
The Health ministry said in its report to the Senate that there is a shortage of basic oxygenation equipment, which are critical when managing Covid-19 patients who may develop mild to moderate illness.
The ministry has set up 458 isolation centres with a bed capacity of 138,000 to address the problem of beds.
It has also pledged to build more labs for coronavirus testing in Busia, Machakos, Kitale, and Malindi, and to scale up training of health workers and restricting travel.
Mr Kagwe became minister on the same day he was made chairman of National Emergency Response Committee, the team leading the fight against the virus.
For President Uhuru Kenyatta, the pandemic has become a delicate balancing act of enforcing containment measures while ensuring Kenyans can still put food on their tables.
