Kenya Passes 100 Day Mark in Fight Against COVID-19

The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Kenya more than 100 days ago and 5,533 people have now tested positive for the coronavirus from a total of 158,404 tests completed. The virus has claimed 137 lives in Kenya and 1,905 people have reportedly recovered.

The Kenya Ministry of Health recently announced a shift to a home-based isolation program for care, monitoring and referral (if needed) for the increasing number of people who have tested positive. The majority of cases continue to be identified in Mombasa and Nairobi, but 40 of Kenya’s 47 counties are now reporting confirmed cases. Busia County, in AMPATH’s service area, has the third highest number of cases in the country due to a high volume of positive tests among truck drivers at the border.

More than 70 cases have been reported in Uasin Gishu County (Eldoret) with many of those being truck drivers as well. A small number of patients have received treatment either in the isolation ward at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) or through home-based care.

The testing team from MTRH safely completed approximately 6,000 tests to help aid the border backup a few weeks ago. AMPATH team members are also aiding with relief efforts for those displaced by recent flooding in Busia. A second shipment of food containing 200 bags of maize and beans is ready for delivery.

Several innovations over the course of the last several months have aided Kenya’s response to the pandemic including:

·         Kenyan factories beginning production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand sanitizer

·         Expanded testing capacity and availability of testing supplies

·         Increase in isolation beds in all counties

·         24-hour access to tele-counselling services and psychological care via hotline numbers 1199 and 719 (in Kenya) and prioritizing mental health and psychosocial supports.

·         Additional hiring of several thousand healthcare workers

·         Safety protocol training provided for all healthcare workers

·         Contact tracing mechanisms activated

·         59,000 community health volunteers reached 12 million households with education information

Kenyans continue to be encouraged to maintain social distancing, stay home when possible, wear face coverings when in public and wash hands or use hand sanitizer frequently. However, members of the public are slowly returning to their daily activities. Discussions are underway about relaxing some government measures, but the Ministry of Health has stressed the need for personal responsibility to continue to mitigate the community spread of the virus.

Patient visits to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) and AMPATH’s rural health clinics for HIV and chronic disease care have increased and are nearing normal levels with PPE use and social distancing measures in place. When the pandemic closures first occurred, patients were encouraged to get three month’s supply of medication which is now beginning to be expended.

An evaluation of AMPATH’s GISHE (microfinance) groups found that about half had stopped meeting during the coronavirus shutdown and the remainder had scaled back to meetings with group leaders only and with deposits made remotely or at a distance. However, all groups are reporting that loan requests have increased substantially and many loans are outstanding or in default due to markets being closed and commodities being unavailable. The population health program hopes to be able to provide masks for group members who want to begin meeting when permitted to do so by county officials.

Graphics: Kenya Ministry of Health