Kenyans living in slums likely to miss out on home-based care

Kenyans living in slum areas may not qualify to use home-based care when treating Covid-19 patients, even if they are asymptomatic.

Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Rashid Aman said the government will be assessing the houses where patients would be returning to and they must have toilets and enough space to practice social distancing to prevent infecting others in their homes.

Speaking Monday during the daily briefing on the coronavirus update at Afya House, Dr. Aman said for one to take care of someone who has contracted the virus at home, one should be confident and careful that the person does not spread the virus to other members in the house or members of the public.

” As the number of infections rise, we are at the same time recording a high number of recoveries. This is commendable, and is proof that contracting this virus is not a death sentence.” Said Dr Aman

The CAS added that the government was recording more and more Covid-19 recoveries, an indication that if the virus is detected early and proper care is availed, recovery was almost certain.

“In recent weeks, we have noticed the number of positive cases rising as we ramp up testing of our people. Naturally, these rising numbers have caused great anxiety to a majority of us. It is however important, to appreciate that, the more we test, the more cases we are likely to record.” He said

“This does not; in any way mean that we lose hope. As a matter of fact, most of our hospitals that are attending to the positive cases have been exceptional on managing the cases. We are recording more and more people recovering from the disease, which is an indication that, if the virus is detected early and proper care is availed, recovery is almost certain. This is why we have dedicated much effort to upgrade both infrastructure and human resource capacities in our healthcare systems. ” He added.