NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 30 – Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe Monday said that the Government is considering the use of boarding secondary schools, airport hangars and other institutions as isolation centers in the event of a crisis in the country’s health facilities in managing coronavirus.
By Sunday, the country had recorded 42 positive cases while nearly 1,000 people who came into close contact with confirmed cases remained in isolation.
He said that the National Emergency Response Committee (NERC) was working with counties and the private sector to identify local institutions that can be used as isolation centers for COVID-19 patients.
“We are expanding our capacity for the purposes of intervention measures, the private sector has identified various areas including schools and airport hangers that can be used as hospitals, isolation centers if we were to go that far,” Kagwe said.
He said that the country is likely to be overrun with health facilities but in such a case secondary boarding schools, aircraft hangers among other institutions will be used as isolation centers.
Kagwe urged business and religious communities to think ahead in case the health facilities are overstretched and begin identifying specific areas where the sick can be isolated.
“It is likely that our health facilities can be overrun by demand, we need to be looking as communities in your villages what are the secondary schools, particularly boarding schools that we can begin to identify as potential areas where we can keep the sick if the situation overruns,” he said.
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