Shoppers scamper for safety at sight of PPE-donning medic
A doctor attached to Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital (CGTRH) Covid-19 isolation centre, caused panic after he walked into a shopping mall donning full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
In the weekend incident, the doctor reportedly boarded a Tuk Tuk from his duty station and alighted outside the mall where he casually walked in alongside other shoppers.
Panic-stricken shoppers scampered for safety, after suspecting it was a patient who had sneaked from the isolation ward and was either sick or obviously contaminated.
Others however confronted him and caught hold of him before handing him over to authorities after he declined to leave the supermarket.
Reacting to the incident Mombasa County Commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo cautioned health workers against engaging in misuses of the PPEs.
“Let us be keen on observing the set out guidelines in using PPES, this is a personal gear that should be used in areas it ought to be used to avoid risking lives of those whom you are in contact with and further causing panic and scare outside the Covid-19 isolation centres,” Kitiyo said.
The doctor defended his gesture by saying he left his work station in a hurry to buy a birthday cake for his wife and in the process he forgot to remove his PPEs.
At the same time the county commissioner has warned area residents, of portraying ‘don’t care attitude’ and ignorance in the fight against Covid-19.
“Its quite unfortunate that you people talk too much, I wish you were using the same energy in discussing and asking each other to follow laid out procedures aimed at reducing Covid-19 it’s a reality stop spreading propaganda that there is no corona,” he said.
