•Public health chief officer Pauline Oginga said home ICUs are not licensed
•She said that the home-based care guidelines are clear at what point someone is supposed to be admitted in hospital.
Mombasa county has banned home-based care used to treat Covid-19, saying there are cases where individuals set up ICUs in their houses.
Speaking during a press briefing, county Covid-19 Response committee co-chair Gilbert Kitiyo said, “Some individuals have opened ICU at home which is a very dangerous practice.”
Public health chief officer Pauline Oginga said home ICUs are not licensed
She said that the home-based care guidelines are clear at what point someone is supposed to be admitted in hospital.
“There are people who are administering oxygen and any other kinds of treatment within the homesteads; this is risky because there is lack of capacity in terms of skills to know how to monitor the patients, it has also led to late referrals where people come in the hospitals when they have run out of options with poor health,” she said.
Mombasa has recorded a surge in Covid-19 cases, with officials attributing it to laxity in following health protocols.
Oginga said in Mombasa, out of the 167,550 samples collected since March 2020, 13,609 tested positive with the case fatality rate growing from 1.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent.
“We have seen many cases coming in our public hospital which is the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital; the facility is overwhelmed by cases which are coming from the community due to community transmission,” she said.
Kitiyo said that the cases have doubled and therefore all public gatherings and in-person meetings of whatever nature are suspended within the region.
All places of worship will have a third capacity and should follow all the protocols given by the Health ministry.
Edited by CM