• Mutua said that the patients will have to be accompanied by resources for their upkeep and treatment expenses.
• He supported the idea of the national government to treat some of the COVID 19 patients at their own homes.
Machakos county has announced a plan to accommodate coronavirus patients from other counties.
Governor Alfred Mutua said this will play a key role in decongesting some of the county hospitals which are already overwhelmed.
He said the patients will be treated within the Machakos isolation centres.
Mutua was spoke on Fiday when he received donations from various organizations.
"We received an informal request from the national government to accommodate some of the Covid 19 patients in our isolation centres and we have no issue but we will discuss and come up with a strategic plan on how many we can accommodate, " he said.
Mutua said his administration has no issue accommodating such patients but stated that the patients will have to be accompanied by resources for their upkeep and treatment.
"We have several ready isolation centres set aside for the pandemic but there is a cost of maintaining their expenses and so they should be accompanied by resources that will cater for their treatment and other needs, " Mutua said.
He said the county emergency response committee will hold a meeting to agree on the number of patients they will accommodate in order to leave room for Machakos residents in case they also fall sick to the disease.
So far Machakos county has more than four isolation centres with a total number of 150 bed capacity.
They include; Machakos Level 5 isolation centre, Machakos Stadium for Mass screening and isolation centre, Kinanie and Kangundo Level 4 hospitals.
The governor however supported the idea of the national government to treat some of the COVID 19 patients at their own homes.
He said the move will help decongest hospitals by treating people with mild symptoms of the coronavirus disease at home and only admit those with critical conditions.
This comes a day after the national government announced that they are developing an interim guidance for safe home care for Covid-19 patients and their contacts, the Health Ministry has announced.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on Thursday said that the government is moving to decongest hospitals and prevent them from being overwhelmed.
“Mbagathi and Kenyatta University hospitals are reaching full capacity. Many of the confirmed cases are asymptomatic and can be managed from home,” the CS said.