Kericho County Teaching and Referral Hospital has received medical equipment worth Sh7 million from Hungary and the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia as part of the joint development cooperation project by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In his speech the Hungary ambassador, Zslot Mészáros, said that the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign affairs has offered 16 equipment to the Kericho referral hospital.
Medical staff of Kericho County referral hospital will also benefit from the 100 scholarships being offered by the government of Hungary making Kenya the highest recipient of scholarships from the European country.
Ambassador Mészáros was speaking today at Kericho County Referral Hospital, where he said his government has added three extra medical beds that he would personally present to the health facility in April this year.
The Hungarian ambassador praised the leadership of Kericho County for being at the frontline in ensuring that the residents of Kericho receive quality medical services.
M’eszáros said that his government was considering offering more health technical support in terms of volunteering staff but Kericho County has to support the programme by providing some logistics like accommodation to the volunteers.
The acting Director General of Medical Services Dr Patrick Amoth who was present during the event said that he was impressed by how the Kericho county government has innovated the CT scan machines to assist in the treatment of COVID-19 patients and urged other counties to benchmark from them.
He also commended the Kericho County health workers for their dedication to provide healthcare services to the residents, which he said was best in the region adding that is why the national government has continued to focus on the Kericho County health sector.
Dr Amoth also said that the COVID-19 vaccine which will be available in the country in three weeks’ time will be administered to health workers, other essential service providers like the teachers, police and airport staff.
He however told Kenyans to continue observing the ministry of health guidelines like hand washing, social distancing, sanitising and proper wearing of face masks to avoid contracting the disease which he said was now at 5 percent positivity rate.
Area governor professor Paul Chepkwony who received the donations from the ambassador thanked the government of Hungary and Slovenia saying that the equipment will be put to good use for the benefit of area residents and the country.
Governor Chepkwony who thanked the health workers for calling off the strike in order to serve the county residents said that Kericho had the lowest HIV prevalence rate at 3.4 percent compared to the national prevalence rate he said was at 4.9 percent.
He said that 97 percentof patients who are HIV positive and 98 percent of HIV positive mothers receive ARVS adding malaria prevalence rate is at 11 percent while COVID-19 positivity rate is below 5 percent.
Speaking at the same function Kericho County Commissioner Kamau Karungó asked the government of Hungary to buy avocado fruits from the county.
by Dominic Cheres /Mwangi/Kingóri/Waweru
