Garissa county benefits from drugs, oxygen unit

The Kenya Red Cross Society has donated an assortment of drugs to Garissa county government to boost its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking at Garissa referral hospital after receiving the drugs from KRCS regional manager Mohamed Abdikadir, Health CEC Roble Nunow urged residents to continue observing the Covid-19 protocols by the Health ministry and avail themselves for vaccination at all subcounty hospitals.

“I want to remind our people that we are not out of the woods yet. We are still registering Covid-19 infections and we call on all citizens to properly wear their face masks among other precautionary measures as directed by the ministry,” Nunow said.

“Vaccination is ongoing here at Garissa referral hospital and all subcounty hospitals. I urge those who are yet to receive the jab to show up at these centres,” he added.

Nunow said as things stand, the infection rates are worrying noting that extra measures have to be put in place to arrest the situation.

The CEC said the reason behind high positivity rates is because medics across the county have upped their game on surveillance and detection with results being released in hours.

“The Covid situation in Garissa is still alarming; this has put pressure on us as the county health fraternity and at the same time the Covid-19 response committee,” the official said.

“So even as we up our game, we call for maximum cooperation from residents because we are in this fight together and together we will overcome this monster.

The CEC also presided over the official hand-over of the oxygen unit at the new ICU facility at referral hospital.

The project has been financed by the World Bank through the Ministry of Health as part of the National government’s Covid-19 response programme.

The project has equipped the new 24-bed ICU with 24 oxygen cylinders, 12 cylinders of medical air and set up a refilling unit.

So far, four nurses and two biomedical engineers have been trained on how to operate the equipment.

Last month, health officials expressed alarm over high Covid infection rates, deaths in the area.

-Edited by SKanyara