Governors see decline in Coronavirus cases

The Council of Governors (CoG) yesterday said there has been tremendous progress in combating Covid-19 in the last one week owing to lockdown and stringent measures.

CoG Health Committee chairman Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, said in the last one week, there has been a decline in Covid-19 infections, bringing the positivity rate to 15.1 per cent down from 22 in previous weeks.

“This is an indication of good progress in combating the virus in the country, which is attributed to lockdown and stringent measures introduced by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

We urge members of the public to continue adhering to the preventive measures,” said Nyong’o in a press conference in Nairobi.

But despite being in the middle of a pandemic and two months to the end of the financial year, he said counties are struggling, since they are yet to receive their equitable share of about Sh85 billion.

The council has now demanded immediate disbursement of all outstanding money owed to counties before April 15.

According to Nyong’o, 12 counties are yet to receive Sh7.2 billion owed to them for last December and another Sh26 billion for January, February and March, respectively.

“The delay has continued to slow down timely response to Covid-19 and other county operations have also been impacted negatively,” said the governor.

Counties have notified National Treasury that the inordinate four-month delay may lead to other drastic action since negotiations seem not to be heeded.

On the status of bed capacity, Nyong’o said there are 8,073 beds in 188 isolation centres out of which 6,159 are available for patients.

New patients

The Kisumu governor also said there are a total of 417 beds in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) out of which 259 are available for new patients and another 186 beds in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) out of which 104 beds are available for new patients.

With regards to oxygen supply cumulatively in 47 counties, there are 58 oxygen plants out of which 42 are functional.

A total of 2,828 oxygen cylinders and 730 concentrators are available while 3,601 isolation beds are connected to oxygen across all counties. 

In regards to AstraZeneca vaccine, Nyong’o said  41 counties have cumulatively  received 395, 096 doses out of which 341, 520 doses have been administered.

Some 70,883 healthcare workers have so far received the vaccine, 120,975 security personnel, 33, 759 teachers and 115,903 from other groups.

“We urge frontline workers and the elderly who are yet to be vaccinated to ensure they receive the jab, as the same is aimed at reducing severe illness and death from Covid-19,” Nyong’o said.

County boss also explained that on testing and home-based care, out of 102,980 tests carried out in 41 counties, 15,007 tested positive.

Of this 5,856 positive cases are under home-based care while 7,071 are in isolation facilities across 41 counties.

A total of 35,050 have recovered from Covid -195.

Nyong’o said the Ministry of Health, through the Public Service Commission in consultation with the CoG, has granted authority for renewal of their contracts, particularly those who were engaged in Covid-19 management for another six months starting  April to September.

He also said the ministry is working with counties to ensure healthcare workers who terminated their contracts are replaced immediately to ensure that service delivery is not affected.

“The two levels of government are in discussion to see if the contracts of health workers still in service can be extended for one year,” said Nyong’o.