Kisumu hospitals overstretched as Covid cases surge

Public and private hospitals in Kisumu have overstretched their capacities as more cases of Covid 19 emerge, Health executive Boaz Nyunya has said.

The county government is set to scale up testing after receiving 6,000 rapid testing kits from the Ministry of Health, Nyunya said.

In a statement, Nyunya said Kisumu has so far registered 5,994 accumulative Covid-19 cases from 43,000 tests.

"We have a weekly positivity of 28.4 per cent. The county has cumulatively reported 139 deaths since the outbreak of the virus in March last year, reflecting a case fatality rate of 2.4 per cent. We have 687 active cases. Out of this, 112 are in hospitals," he said.

Kisumu Central remains the epicentre of the disease in the county, followed by Kisumu East and Kisumu West. All subcounties have cases.

“On vaccination, we have so far vaccinated 32,587 people, with 4,635 having received the second round of the vaccines by the end of last week,” Nyunya said.

This emerged even as 161 more people tested positive for the virus across Kenya. Of the number, 158 were Kenyans; 81 were females and 80 were males. The youngest was two months old and the oldest was 91 years old.  This was from a sample size of 2,805 tested within 24 hours.  Positivity stood at 5.7 per cent.

In terms of county distribution, Nairobi had 52, Siaya 44, Homa Bay 11, Mombasa nine, Meru nine, Kiambu eight, Migori six, Kisii five, Kakamega four, Nakuru four, Kisumu three, Uasin Gishu three, Bomet one, Kericho one nd Wajir one.

Last week, a meeting in Kisumu chaired by Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o and county commissioner Josephine Ouko announced sweeping and stringent containment measures aimed at disrupting the spread of the virus.

They said an operation would be conducted to ensure residents adhered to the rules. At least two county courts are to be revived and gazetted in the next few days to help handle those flouting the Covid-19 protocols like wearing masks.

"We wish to assure the people of Kisumu and other stakeholders of our resolve to battle this wild and merciless pandemic that has continued to ravage the world amid rising deaths and grave devastation to the global economies, including Kenya."

Nyunya, in a statement, also gave mortuaries 48 hours to release all bodies in their custody. This is one of the measures the county is taking to curb the spread. The county government threatened to sue to have unclaimed bodies buried in mass graves if they are not collected.

The executive said bodies must be released from the mortuaries by 10am and must be buried the same day. He said mortuaries failing to obey the directive will also have their licences cancelled.

"We have established that the prolonged stay of bodies in the mortuaries leads to abuse of burial protocols, eventually making it difficult to control the number of mourners attending such ceremonies," he said.

Nyunya said 212 bodies were in private and public morgues.

"All these will be declared as unclaimed bodies if not released to relatives within the stipulated time."

Multi-agency teams backed by police officers, chiefs, subcounty administrators and enforcement officers will carry out fresh crackdowns to ensure burial ceremonies are conducted according to the Covid-19 protocols.

Other interventions include closing indefinitely all livestock auction markets.

Nyunya said Bar Korwa open-air market in Seme had been closed indefinitely for failing to provide sanitary services. More markets across the county are on their radar.

“Management committees of markets have been instructed to ensure there is water and sanitiser at the entrances of all the markets,” he said.

Management committee members are required to appoint market champions to educate traders on the Covid-19 protocols.

“We wish to appeal to our people to take the lead in the fight against Covid-19. Let’s obey the laid-down protocols. Let’s keep social distance and avoid crowded places,” he said.

Police officers accompanied by health officials last week arrested more than 80 people found to have been violating the protocols. Some did not wear masks, some matatus had excess passengers and others were in clubs past the recommended time.

Licences of two bars and restaurants were also withdrawn and 12 matatus impounded for carrying excess passengers on the Kisumu-Busia and Kisumu-Kakamega roads.

County commander Samuel Anampiu said the crackdown and sensitisation will continue.

Already, the county government offices have been closed, with the administration also suspending the provision of non-essential services until further notice.