Nurses at the Kajiado County Referral Hospital on Thursday lit candles and observed a moment of silence in honour of their colleagues who have lost their lives to Covid-19 in the line of duty.
This comes a few days after the 32-year-old nurse Marian Awuor Adumbo who worked at Rachuonyo Sub-County Hospital succumbed to the virus leaving behind a newborn.
She was the third nurse to die in five months raising the number of health care workers who have succumbed to the virus in the country to ten.
The nurses expressed concern over the rising number of corona infections among health workers and demanded for quality and adequate personal protective equipment to prevent them from the killer disease.
Rose Leina, a nurse at Kajiado referral hospital, said nurses are at a greater risk of exposure to the virus during their course of work as they are in direct contact with patients some of whom may be carrying the virus.
She called on both the national and county governments to conduct proper training for all healthcare workers on managing COVID-19 besides providing them with adequate quality PPE’s.
“As we mourn our fallen colleague nurse Marian, we appeal for provision of adequate and quality PPE’s as nurses are the frontline workers and are at great risk of exposure to the virus,” said Leina.
She added that most healthcare workers do not have the N95 masks and use surgical masks which are not effective against the virus. “If we come into contact with asymptomatic patients, we stand a high chance of getting infected.”
Becky Mpoke called on the county government to increase their risk allowance and employ more health workers to reduce the workload which she added also increased the infection rate.
Their colleague, Wilson Samperu called on nurses countrywide to strictly adhere to the Ministry of Health safety guidelines during their course of duty to prevent them from catching and transmitting the virus amongst themselves.
Over 700 healthcare workers countrywide have been infected with coronavirus with the rising number of infections linked to several risk factors, including contact with infected patients, poor quality PPE’s and lack of proper training on management of Covid-19.
Kajiado County has so far recorded 1,068 Covid-19 positive infections with 17 people having succumbed to the virus.
Governor Joseph Ole Lenku revealed that the county government was prepared to tackle the virus and all healthcare workers have been provided with adequate PPEs.
He said five isolation centres have been put up at Kajiado Referral Hospital, Kitengela Sub County Hospital, Ole Kasasi Health Centre, Namanga Health Centre and Oloitokitok Sub County Hospital.
Ngong Sub County Hospital, Ng’atataek Health Centre and the KMTC Oloitokitok have been set aside as Covid 19 Hospitals and isolation centres.
Lenku added that there were 20 ICU beds already in place with plans to scale up the number to 50.
By Rop Janet
