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The government has applauded local innovators who have stepped up efforts with various innovative ideas to combat Covid-19.

Since the first case of coronavirus was reported in the country over days ago, a series of innovations to counter the pandemic have been witnessed locally. 

The most outstanding one was that of Students at Kenyatta University, who developed a ventilator prototype for use in local hospitals.

The innovative bug has not escaped the attention of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who last week praised Kenyans for making remarkable progress in the local manufacture of medical technologies in equipment to support of our medical and public support that have risen as a result of the pandemic.

Wonderful innovations

Yesterday, during Ministry of Health’s daily updates Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dr. Mercy Mwangangi said the government is glad that Kenyans are taking hygienic measures seriously, a move she said has been complimented by “very wonderful innovations with regard to hand washing facilities.”

She cited Step Osha hand-washing machine which was one such innovations by Kenyans she said has been utilised by members of the ministry of health and forms of one the containment measure that various institutions to put in place.

“We are glad that Kenyans are taking basic hygiene measures seriously. Towards this end, we are seeing wonderful innovations with regards to hand washing facilities, for instance, the step-osha that we have here.  

“The Step Osha that we have here has actually been utilised by members of the ministry of health and actually forms one of the containment measure that we are advocating for different institutions to put in place,” Dr Mwangangi said.

“Today we are celebrating our local innovators who have put in place all these devices to ensure to ensure that our containment measures are useful in flattening the curve.”

While encouraging Kenyans to utilise the innovations Dr. Mwangagi also reckoned there is a worrying over reliance on sanitisers.

She note while sanitisers are effective, soap and running water is the best for fighting this disease.

“People must therefore, start prioritizing washing of hands and only sanitize in exceptional circumstances.

While at this, we want our industries to focus on producing quality sanitizer products, so that we do not end up creating newer problems, while solving the Covid-19 problem,” she said.