Kenya to start home care for Covid-19 patients – KBC

The Ministry of Health has completed the process of developing Covid-19 protocols for home-based care to be implemented countrywide.

According to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe the guidelines to rolled be out as early as next week are in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations.

The CS said 80pc of Covid-19 patients are asymptomatic and as such it was unnecessary to keep them in hospitals. He said the move was also aimed at decongesting health and quarantine facilities which were nearing full capacity.

The government will, however, intervene for families without the capacity to manage the patients with either mild symptoms or no symptoms at all and their contacts.

Those in isolation will also be released to be quarantined in their homes once the protocols that have been customized depending on the situation are out.

“With the fight against the virus raging, over 80 per cent of our patients in hospitals are asymptomatic, and therefore, may be managed from home. If this is implemented, it would free our health facilities from congestion. The Ministry of Health is in the process of actualizing home and community-based care protocols, for roll out and to be implemented countrywide” he said.

The CS made the revelation on Thursday as 124 more people tested positive for the new coronavirus bringing the national tally to 2,340.

Kagwe warned that the country is not of the woods yet as the disease is firmly rooted within the communities adding that with the rising numbers it was time to look at other ways to cope.

“We have learned in the last three months how to manage the disease. A time has come when we should implement our own systems in our plans, depending on our situation because it the only way we can be able to cope with what we are expecting in the future”.

He said a high degree of discipline will be expected from those who will be managing their loved ones.

“Our citizens are the warriors against this disease, and how you treat those who will come home calls for discipline that we should stick to. They should also know they are not in any danger and should avoid any form of stigmatisation”.

Photographs

On quarantine escapees, the CS said the Ministry of Health will not hesitate to publish their photographs on the newspapers.

He said six people who had escaped from a quarantine facility in Turkana have been tracked down.

“When we get to the point when we know that some people are running away from a quarantine facility or during contact tracing, there is no reason stopping MoH from publishing their photographs on the newspapers. They are a danger to the society”, he said.