EDITORIAL: Scale up efforts to curb virus spread in counties

Editorials

EDITORIAL: Scale up efforts to curb virus spread in counties

Wednesday, June 10, 2020 0:01

By EDITORIAL

The Ministry of Health’s warning that the coronavirus disease will inevitably spread to all counties in a few weeks poses a fresh challenge to the country’s bid to contain the pandemic.

The virus is now in 38 of the 47 devolved units. Considering that it was first reported in the country on March 12, the rate at which it has spread is a clear indication that measures employed so far to curb infections have not been effective.

More must be done to ensure that all counties are adequately prepared to keep infections as low as possible and hopefully prevent our already fragile healthcare system from being overrun by Covid-19 patients. Both the national and county governments have their work cut out and can’t afford to work at cross-purpose, not if we are to win the war against the disease.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday expressed this sense of urgency when he directed that at least 300 hospital beds should be set aside for Covid-19 patients by each county.

That is a tall order for most counties to implement on their already constrained budgets, but it is viable if the country moves with haste to implement the recently proposed Sh53.7 billion stimulus package.

The package has budgeted for 20,000 beds for public hospitals at Sh500 million. This works out to at least 400 beds, if they are to be shared equally among the 47 counties. But hospital beds alone are not enough. Both levels of government must make sure that hospitals are adequately staffed and equipped.

It would be defeating for patients to lie on nice beds only to lack ventilators and competent personnel to administer care.

Counties should also go the extra mile and deploy their officers to the grassroots to enlighten residents on the need to observe the basic guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health. This is critical especially considering that in urban slums where majority of the Covid-19 cases have been reported, it has been due to failure to observe simple measures such as social distancing, wearing face masks and washing hands frequently.

Lastly, both levels of government can borrow a leaf from New Zealand which greatly employed communication to win the war against the virus. The messaging should inspire Kenyans to trust that the governments have their welfare at heart and therefore comply with the directives. That is the only way to win this war.