22 Pumwani Maternity Medics Test Positive for Covid-19

A total of 22 health workers at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital were on Monday, July 13, confirmed to have tested positive for Covid-19.

Speaking during the Monday Covid-19 briefing, Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe, allayed fears regarding a possible outbreak at the health centre.

“One of the crucial aspects in the management of Covid-19 is contact tracing. Initially, we were using telephone calls and now we have web tracing which is much more effective,” he announced after confirming the Pumwani cases.

He further revealed that a targeted mass testing exercise carried out at the hospital was how the 22 were identified and placed under isolation soon after.

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe address a gathering in Nairobi in June 2020

File

News first broke on social media platforms over the weekend, with a video of the Kenya National Union of Nurses Nairobi County Chair Boaz Onchari going viral on Sunday, July 12.

In the video, Onchari claimed that 15 of the nurses at Pumwani Maternity Hospital who had tested positive for Covid-19 were asymptomatic.

The number of cases of the disease in Kenya has continued to register a worrying rise every day, raising concerns about the consequences of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to end the cessation of movement order that affected hotspot counties including Nairobi and Mombasa.
 
On Monday, the Health CS announced 189 new Covid-19 cases bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 10,294. 

However, he maintained that MoH was equipped to protect the health workers stationed at the frontlines in the war against the pandemic, and categorically denied assertions that some health facilities in Nairobi County were suffering a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs). 

He further stated that his office had not received any information from the management of hospitals in Nairobi regarding a shortage of PPEs.

Watch Nairobi County’s Nurses Head speaking at Pumwani Hospital below: