- The month of June had 26 cases, May reported 20 and April had 26.
- So far, 373 health workers have contracted the disease.
Image: / MATHEWS NDANYI
The number of health workers contracting Covid-19 in Mombasa is rising, according to data from the county department of Health.
In July alone, some 50 health workers tested positive for Covid-19, which is the highest ever in a month this year.
June had 26 cases, May reported 20 and April had 26. So far, 373 health workers have contracted the disease.
Kenya Union of Nurses Mombasa branch secretary general Peter Maroko said the majority of health workers exposed to Covid-19 are general practitioners.
He said the health workers designated to deal with Covid-19 patients are well protected. Those receiving patients and medics in general wards are at risk of Covid-19 because they are not fully protected.
“When patients walk into health facilities, complaining of different ailments, they are served by general practitioners. In most cases, they do not show any signs of Covid-19, but later on, turn out to be positive for Covid-19 and by that time, a health worker might have already been exposed,” Maroko said.
He said most patients are coming in with signs of pneumonia, but after a thorough checkup, they are confirmed to be positive for Covid-19.
The official said the national and county government should protect all health workers against Covid-19 by ensuring they are all issued with PPE.
The country is dealing with a fourth wave of Covid-19.
“At the isolation wards, the health workers are protected. So far, we have not had cases of those in isolation wards contracting the disease, but those in other departments are the ones getting the infection at an alarming rate,” Maroko said.
At the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital, all the 12 Covid-19 ICU beds are occupied. The additional 50 beds set aside for mild Covid-19 patients are also fully occupied.
According to Maroko, all the quarantine centres where suspected Covid-19 patients were being held, were closed down in the region.
“Right now, contact tracing is not really happening. People suspected to have come into contact with Covid-19 patients are supposed to be isolated for 14 days, which is also not happening. Therefore, we should brace ourselves for more infections,” he said.
He said the national and county government should focus more on contact tracing and forcing people to self-isolate so that they can mitigate the spread of the infectious disease.
The Mombasa county public Health director of communications Richard Chacha confirmed that the isolation centres were closed.
However, he said the county government is still doing contact tracing.
“We have a team on the ground which is doing contact tracing of family members and people who are close to patients who have tested positive,” he said.
So far, 13,609 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the county and 297 others have died from the disease.
However, 21,659 people from the population of over 1.2 million people have been fully vaccinated.
Among them are 3,416 health workers, 2,360 teachers, 970 security officers, 5,741 people under a cohort of 58 years and above and 9,172 reported as others.
-Edited by SKanyara