• Lady Griffin at Kenya Medical Training College will have 190 beds, Pumwani's Nursing and Training College 90 and Bahati Health Centre 50.
• The NMS will also establish temporary community isolation centres with 300-500 bed capacity in the informal settlements, especially in Kibera.
The Nairobi Metropolitan Service intends to set aside 490 beds in county hospitals to handle increased cases of the coronavirus in the city.
NMS has identified where to isolate asymptomatic Covid-19 patients, NMS Health Services director Josephine Kibaru-Mbae said on Monday. An asymptomatic person is a disease or infection carrier who does not have the symptoms.
Covid-19 positive cases in Nairobi were 1,283 as of June 8.
Lady Griffin at Kenya Medical Training College will have 190 beds, Pumwani's Nursing and Training College 90 and Bahati Health Centre 50.
“We have many positive cases that need isolation besides those we already have at Mbagathi, Kenyatta National Hospital and Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital. All these are for the isolation of positive people but who do not show signs,” Mbae said.
She clarified that the Pumwani isolation facility will accommodate both expectant mothers and the general public.
Already, Pumwani has a five-bed capacity isolation centre for Covid-19-positive pregnant women. It runs the facility with the Aga Khan Hospital.
"There are five beds but the more serious cases are usually referred to Kenyatta National Hospital," Mbae said.
A 50-bed capacity wing is ready at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital. Eighteen beds will be at the Intensive Care Unit in the facility. The hospital will admit Covid-19 patients with serious symptoms like difficulty in breathing and chest pains and who require ventilators.
“The facility at Mama Lucy is ready. We are just waiting for the beds. This wing is the newly completed block that was set to contain a maternity wing. But due to the pandemic, we have seen it best to use it to address the Covid-19 cases,” Mbae said.
The NMS is also renovating Blocks 1 and 2 at Mbagathi Hospital which will be converted into isolation wards for 100 extra critically ill patients.
Ten of those beds will be for the ICU.
“The ICU might not be ready by the end of the week but the other isolation places should be ready since they require basic renovations,” the Health Services director noted.
The NMS also intends to establish temporary community isolation centres with 300-500 bed capacity in the informal settlements, especially in Kibera. The centres will house asymptomatic Covid-19 patients.
“This not something I can guarantee the NMS will accomplish by the end of the week since we also have to look at the available resources. In the meantime, we are on the ground identifying a suitable place in Kibera for the set-up,” Mbae said.
She, however, said the NMS will not be conducting Phase Two of free Covid-19 mass testing until the Ministry of Health gives them the green light.
On Monday, the ministry acknowledged there was a backlog of test cases in Mombasa and Nairobi.
But the NMS will continue with contact tracing. “Contact tracing is also from normal quarantine centres and from the setup call centres where the community has been reaching to us for such cases,” Mbae said.
NMS is also testing eateries and food handlers employed in facilities that want to reopen businesses.
The NMS has erected close to 2,000 portable handwashing points in the informal settlements and, through community health volunteers, distributed 3,000-4,000 reusable masks in those areas.
“The CHVs maintain the portable hand washing points as well as supply masks and sensitise the public about the coronavirus. Informal settlements have the highest number of cases and we will put more focus in these areas,” Mbae said.
- mwaniki fm