The rising cases of Covid-19 in Mombasa could soon overwhelm the county's capacity to handle the outbreak.
Mombasa has 409 beds for Covid-19 patients.
On March 16, Governor Hassan Joho transformed the Coast Provincial General Hospital's private wing into a 19-bed isolation unit for Covid-19 patients.
On April 23, he launched another 300-bed capacity treatment and isolation centre at the Technical University of Mombasa.
He said another 90 isolation beds had been set aside in different health facilities within the county. Two more level four county health facilities, Tudor and Mvita hospitals, are among those with isolation and treatment centres.
Out of the 409 beds in the county, as of Friday last week, 30 per cent of them were already occupied by Covid-19 patients, Joho said.
“We have 300 beds at TUM, another 19 at Coast General and some other 90 beds. We have a 30 per cent bed occupancy as of now,” he said.
Therefore, if 30 per cent of 409 beds have been occupied, this means that at least 123 beds are already in use, leaving behind 286 beds for Covid-19 patients.
However, with the current increase of numbers, the Mombasa county government will soon not be able to handle the Covid-19 patients.
On Sunday, the county recorded the highest number of positive cases after 19 new patients were discovered through tests.
The Old Town area has the highest number of infected people with over 40 cases as of Sunday.
Six people, out of the 12 that have died in Mombasa, are from the Old Town area.
In just one week, Mombasa recorded 59 new cases, beating Nairobi that had 42 cases.
The region’s infection rate stands at 12 people per 100,000, compared to Nairobi’s six persons per 100,000.
On Saturday, Mombasa county commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo warned that Old Town residents are dancing with death.
Edited by Henry Makori
