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Governors back Uhuru in renewed fight against corona

Thursday, April 15th, 2021 00:00 | By
CoG Health Committee chair Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o briefs the press on measures taken by counties to respond to Covid-19 in Nairobi, yesterday. PD/Njenga Kungu

George Kebaso @Morarak

The Council of Governors yesterday  raised the red flag over sudden surge in Covid-19 infections outside ‘disease infected counties’ of Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Kajiado and Nakuru.

Chairman of the Councils Health Committee Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o said community transmissions have started increasing in counties.

Consequently, Nyong’o warned it would be difficult to address the situation in the 42 counties, especially given the delayed funds needed to enable them hand  the cases.  He indicated that the situation is threatening to get out of hand. 

“We note that community transmissions have started increasing and other counties out of the zoned areas are experiencing a surge in Covid infections,” Nyong’o said at CoG headquarters during a news conference.

Nyong’o at the same time said the National government owes counties Sh66 billion, money meant to help address the challenges facing them.

“As county governments, we are still striving to get Sh66 billion owed to counties, out of which; Sh2.6 billion is owed to Nairobi for the month of December; Sh12 billion owed to 21 counties for January, Sh26 billion that’s owed to all the counties for February, including Sh25 billion for the month of March,” the Kisumu governor said.  

Prof Nyong’o revealed that as of Tuesday, 52,555 cases out of the national tally of 146,156 are from counties outside the zoned regions.

“As devolved units, we will strive to ensure strict adherence of health protocols by all counties, especially those outside the zoned areas.

We continue to urge members of the public to work collaboratively with the National and county governments towards the fight against Covid-19,” he added.

Stringent measures

On March 26, President Uhuru Kenyatta renewed stringent measures to help curb the spread of Covid-19 that had escalated since the onset of the third wave in March.

“There shall be cessation of all movement by road or rail, or air into and out of the disease infected areas as one zoned area comprising the counties of Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Kiambu and Nakuru effective midnight tonight,” he said.

Last week, the Ministry of Health revealed that the Covid-19 positivity rate was at 15.1 per cent.  Prof Nyong’o put the positivity rate at 11.8 percent from a sample size of 4,134 tests.

He, however, warned that the spotlight should be turned on counties outside the five zoned areas in a bid to arrest the surge in infections.

He, however, noted that in the last one week, county governments have addressed the status of bed capacity in 32 counties that have so far released their data.

“We have 7, 466 beds in 390 isolation centres; 5, 912 available for patients in the 32 counties; 390 ICU beds; 258 available for new patients and 156 High Dependency Unit beds and 69 beds available for new patients,” Nyong’o said.

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