Patients and staff at the Kenyatta National Hospital are in shock after it emerged that a surgeon who is infected with Covid-19 has been attending to patients and mingling with colleagues.
It is feared that he may have passed on the disease to colleagues at KNH and patients he saw at his private clinic.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe who visited the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council on wednesday said the ministry is deeply disappointment with medic. "We are also asking that the health professionals must adhere to what we are saying because we know that there are some who are misbehaving," Kagwe said.
The surgeon was preparing to operate on a patient but a nurse at the facility reported him to the management.
So far up to 634 medics, including nurses, clinical officers, medical doctors, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians have contracted the virus while in the line of duty. The figure represents 3% of the cases reported of the infections in Kenya and way below the 10% rate globally.
Kenya reported 544 total new cases on Wednesday, bringinging the total tally to 19,125. The new cases were from 5, 259 samples.
Kagwe also blamed the spiking numbers to the cold season being experienced in Nairobi and its surroundings. Health CS Mutahi Kagwe [photo/courtesy] "This is the second flu season which runs from July to October. It's possible this is a reason why the figures are climbing up," he said.
KMPDC chairperson Eva Njenga said more schools might be gazetted as isolation centres if the trend persists.
"We are ensuring all isolation centres in the country have oxygen because this is the main form of therapy," Njenga said.
Her announcement comes as the Nairobi Metropolitan Services said it has identified eight schools to be used as isolation centres as part of Nairobi County's preparedness to combat covid-19. NMS Director of Health Services Josephine Mbae said the identified schools will be occupied patients who are not able to self-isolate or can not be subjected to home based care.
“NMS has set aside KMTC’s Mary Griffin hostel which has 90 beds,” she said.