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The National and County Governments are working together to beef up oxygen capacity in various health facilities in preparation for a possible fourth wave.
With the Covid-19 numbers and positivity rate going down, both levels of government have embarked on a project to ensure there are enough medical oxygen cylinders, piped oxygen in hospitals, reliable and working oxygen plants, and putting bulk liquid oxygen tanks in facilities.
This is to ensure the country does not get overwhelmed like India should the fourth wave come knocking.
Already, the government has received funding from the World Bank that targets 16 counties for the support with other counties with their own revenue asked to ensure emphasis on the availability of the commodity.
“We are also working closely with counties to emphasise on the need for having additional piped oxygen, additional cylinders, additional liquid oxygen tanks placed in facilities in preparation for a potential fourth wave which may come or not come so better to be prepared than being sorry,” Health DG Patrick Amoth has said.
As at Tuesday, 163,976 positive cases had been recorded in the country from a cumulative 1,725,546 million tests while the total recoveries stood at 113,057.
The numbers of confirmed cases, hospital admissions and those in ICU have been on a downward trajectory.
On Monday for instance, just 66 people tested positive from a sample size of 1,833, representing a positivity rate of 3.6 per cent.
The positivity rate was as high as 22 per cent in March, prompting the President to impose a partial lockdown in counties that had high infections.
The measures have since been eased.
“Our call to the counties is the Lord has been merciful, we have this grace period when the numbers are going down. Let us use this opportunity to be able to strengthen our capacity in preparation for a potential wave that will come thereafter,” Amoth said.
He added: “The number on ventilator support is now at 28, we had even reached a triple-digit level. The total number of patients in facility care is coming down and also the number of patients in home-based care is also coming down. So we are on the right path but we should still not lower our guard.”
Global health expert Dr Bernard Muia has however questioned the drastic rate at which the numbers in the country have come down, saying the data being released by the government should be followed by an explanation on what has led to the reduction in numbers.
“Our immunisation rate is still quite low because the doses we had of 1.02 million we have already covered 90 per cent of that and that cannot contribute to that drastic reduction,” he said.
The medic noted that the fatality rate has remained constantly at 1.79 per cent despite other numbers such as the hospital admissions and ICU cases being reported to be on a downward trend.
The fatalities in the country to stand at 2,928 after 21 more deaths were confirmed on Tuesday.
“According to the data from the ministry of health the case fatality rate for Covid-19 in Kenya has consistently remained 1.79. How come we are talking about the magnitude of the disease, the impact being that bad sometimes and then the case fatality rate remains 1.79 which to me as an expert in public health is questionable.”
Kenya has been battling with the third wave of the disease that saw an increase in hospital admissions and deaths, a phenomenon said to have been fuelled by the new Covid-19 variants that have been circulating in the country since January.
This saw the country face an acute shortage of oxygen as the number of patients in need of critical care and oxygen continued to rise.
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