Nairobi Hospital Overwhelmed By Large Covid-19 Patients

As President Uhuru Kenyatta ‘officially’ opened up the borders and letting Kenyans’ immune system to protect them against COVID-19, the country might be looking at a full-blown crisis as hospitals become overwhelmed.

Nairobi Hospital, which is known for admitting patients from well-off families says that is already overwhelmed by a large number of Covid-19 patients. The hospital is now considering not taking in new admissions.

As of July 4, 2020, Nairobi Hospital had admitted 164 Covid-19 patients with 22 of them being under the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Nairobi has been described by the Ministry of Health as a hotspot of the virus that has the potential to spread to the whole country if the movement of persons is not checked.

“Over the past weekend, the management faced a big challenge to stretch the hospital’s capacity to accommodate a sudden rise in cases presenting at the accident and emergency department with suspected Covid-19,” said Nairobi Hospital CEO Mr. Allan Pamba.

Kenya has been experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases with the Ministry of Health warning that things are bound to get worse if Kenyans will not adhere to rules and regulations set by the Ministry of Health. Kenyans seem to be back to their normal lives with no social distancing or wearing of the mask.

On Tuesday, Kenya registered 183 COVID-19 cases after testing 2,061 samples bringing the viral load in Kenya to 8,250. The total number of samples tested for COVID-19 stood at 193,455 according to Health CS Mutahi Kagwe.

On Tuesday, the cases were distributed as follows: Nairobi-100, Machakos-37, Kiambu-14, Mombasa 13, Kajiado-11, Nakuru-5, and Busia-3. With the lifting of the cessation of movement by President Uhuru Kenyatta, thousands of Kenyans were seen stranded at bus termini struggling to travel to their rural areas.

CS Mutahi Kagwe told Kenyans that they should not expect to be flown back to the city after contracting Covid-19 because the hospitals will be full.

READ: The Number Of Covid-19 Isolation Beds Across Counties