Lamu county is struggling with surging Covid-19 cases amidst poor or lack of the necessary infrastructure to fight the pandemic.
All isolation centres in the county lack oxygen, forcing critical patients to be referred to Mombasa and Nairobi.
The county was recently listed by the Ministry of Health as among those with the highest infection of the new Delta strain in the country.
Lamu has only three functional isolation centres located at the King Fahad Hospital on Lamu island, Mkepetoni Subcounty Hospital and Faza Subcounty Hospital.
The three, however, lack the necessary equipment for such centres despite a daily increase in patients.
The county does not have a single functional ICU, leaving many Covid-19 patients in distress in the isolation wards.
King Fahad Hospital, the largest and only level-4 facility in the county, has no oxygen despite its full isolation wards.
Residents are worried that the situation might see Lamu locked down.
At least five people are admitted daily to the already crammed-up isolation ward at the facility, according to medical staff.
It's not clear how the hospital ensures patients keep social distance even as they are admitted to commence Covid-19 treatment.
The hospital has been forced to convert the paediatric ward into a temporary isolation centre to cater to the surging cases.
“The wards are full, but patients keep coming. The number of those dying is equally rising and, as medics, we are concerned. We don’t have oxygen,” a medic who requested anonymity said.
While the isolation ward at King Fahad is supposed to be run by a 16-member staff, it has only four, straining its output in the war on the pandemic.
“What we are doing is admitting patients whom we can’t treat because we don’t have the necessary medication. We mostly refer to Mombasa and elsewhere,” the medic added.
Hospitals in the county also lack specialised ICU beds, raising questions on the state of preparedness.
The county government has been put on the spot for its laxity in fixing the problem of Covid-19 infrastructure.
In an interview, Governor Fahim Twaha had promised a 186-bed capacity isolation centre and a five-bed ICU facility. That has never come to pass.
Efforts to reach the county Health executive Anne Gathoni were futile as she neither returned calls nor responded to text messages.
The county has four key public hospitals, 34 dispensaries and several health centres, most of which are ill-equipped.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
