By Nsunjo Erica
The United Nations entered a partnership with Kenya’s largest private hospital to set up a coronavirus treatment facility in Nairobi to cater to the global organization’s workers and family members in Africa.
According to Nairobi Hospital Chief Executive Officer, Allan Pamba, construction of the facility starts July 20, to open in six-to-eight weeks.
Mr. Allan Pamba said this COVID-19 treatment facility will have an operating theater, laboratory, radiology, and physiology services and an initial bed-capacity of 150 including 25 intensive-care and 50 high-dependency units.
The UN has its Africa head office in Nairobi, with more than 3,000 workers. It has other offices in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and several peace-keeping missions with over 70,000 personnel as of March.
Kenya’s Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said on Sunday that the country recorded 603 new cases of Covid-19, raising Kenya’s total number of infections to 13,353.
682 patients of the infected in Kenya have recovered from the disease however, 562 of these patients have been under home-based care, while 120 have been discharged from various hospitals. This brings the total number of recoveries so far to 5,122.
Kenya has so far recorded 234 deaths as COVID-19 continues to spike pushing the country into 1st position as the highest COVID-19 recording country in East Africa.
Sources say the Kenyan government abandoned COVID-19 testing and chose to focus on the Covid-19 patients admitted in various hospitals with each of them receiving attention according to their conditions.
Sources continue to elaborate that the government of Kenya has quietly shut down 20 facilities that were collecting Covid-19 samples from Kenyans for testing at KEMRI.