The Ministry of Health on Tuesday said that boarding schools will assist in boosting the country's capacity in dealing with the spread of coronavirus.
During a press briefing on Tuesday at Afya House, Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said that the government is exploring the use of the country's boarding schools countrywide in the event the situation worsens.
"We have engaged county governments to identify specific boarding schools that will assist in boosting our capacity," she said.
The CAS said already 37 county governments have complied with the rest in the process of complying.
"We are also looking at hangars fields as well. This is expected to offer us the additional 300,000-bed capacity," she said.
"We have also taken over the Kenyatta University hospital that has a bed capacity of 300 beds which we are in the process of equipping to boost our capacity. Out of this number we intend to isolate some beds for ICU."
The CAS spoke when she announced Kenya had reported nine new coronavirus cases as of Tuesday.
This now brings the country's total number of Covid-19 cases to 59.
The CAS said in the last 24 hours, 234 samples have been analysed in which the nine tested positive as of March 31.
Mwangangi said the government is monitoring 1,160 contacts who have come into contact with the positive cases.
The CAS further urged Kenyans to continue maintaining social distancing and use the free toll number 719 in case of any suspected Covid-19 incident.
"We reaffirm govt commitment to mitigating this disease. It is important to adhere to set standard guidelines in the fight against the disease," she said.
The CAS thanked the healthcare workers as the country continues fighting the pandemic.
"We continue to work with our health workers to protect them and to ensure that they have the right gear to be able to work as our front-line army in the fight against this disease,” Mwangangi said.
