Healthcare workers are unlikely to contract coronavirus in isolation centres, but when offering normal services to asymptomatic people.
For this reason, Nyeri Health CEC Rachel Kamau says the county government has allocated an extra Sh30 million every quarter to ensure they procure enough equipment to protect health workers.
Kamau said they are now wearing protective gears to protect themselves even while handling general patients.
She cited the Ear Nose and Throat department in hospitals, where she said workers have to put on N95 masks and PPE.
“So the best way to protect our health workers is to ensure that everybody who walks in a health facility is potentially asymptomatic Covid-19 patient and therefore PPEs must be provided,” she said.
Three healthcare workers in Nyeri are infected with Covid-19.
Nyeri county director of medical services Nelson Muriu said 26 Covid-19 cases had been reported in Nyeri by Friday, where six out of the eight sub counties have reported Covid-19 cases.
Muriu said Nyeri is different from other counties as it has a high burden for Non-communicable diseases (NCD).
They include hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
“This means that we are bound to report more cases than other counties because our population is more vulnerable. We also have an ageing population which of course also increases that pool of vulnerable population,” he said.
Muriu said healthcare workers feel more confident when wearing PPEs and said moving forward all health workers will need to wear PPEs even as they do their daily work.
“It will become the new normal,” he said.
They spoke at Nyeri County Referral Hospital in Nyeri town on Friday when Kenya Covid-19 Fund and Equity Group Foundation delivered Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to be used in the county.
