Health system overwhelmed as hospitals face ICU-bed crisis
The surge in infections has raised fears of the Covid-19 pandemic overwhelming health system as hospitals face ICU-bed crisis.
According to Dr. Ahmed Kalebi, having officially surpassed the 1st wave and continuing to escalate rapidly and with intensification of community spread extending outside Nairobi, means the 3rd wave may peak higher than the 2nd wave with deadly consequences “alarm bells should be ringing.”
“Dear Nairobians, this is the very worst time to get Covid-19. If you fall seriously ill in need of a hospital bed with oxygen or an ICU bed, you won’t find any in the city, hospitals are overwhelmed. So please take extra precautions to keep yourself safe from contracting the virus,” he added.
According to Machakos Governor, Dr. Alfred Mutua, ICU in Machakos county are full with both Machakos and other county Covid-19 patients.
“Currently there are no ICU beds available in Kenya. if you see someone not wearing a mask, question their intention. Your life is yours, not corporate,” he tweeted.
According to the Secretariat National Isolation and Quarantine facilities, with regard to the current status of Covid-19 isolation and ICU beds, there are 353 health facilities,827 ICU beds and 20,910 isolation beds.
In 24 hours, 747 people have tested positive from 5,145 samples bringing the cumulative cases to 120,910.
889 patients have been admitted in various health facilities countrywide while 2,545 patients are on home based isolation and care.
121 patients are in the ICU; 32 of whom are on ventilatory support and 86 on supplemental oxygen.
However, 17 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. 7 have occurred in the last 48 hours while 10 are late death reports from facility record audits that have occurred on diverse dates. This now pushes our cumulative fatalities to 2,011.
Another 59 patients are separately on supplementary oxygen with 41 in the general wards. 18 are in the high dependency unit.
