NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 10- The government now says it has developed a protocol on the safe disposal of coronavirus waste so as to prevent infection risks.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the protocols will be shared with counties for implementation even as the government urged Kenyans to wear face masks whenever they are in public places.
Some institutions, including banks and supermarkets, have already started turning away customers without masks.
“We note that there will be a challenge in disposing off face masks. The Ministry of Health together with the Ministry of Environment and other government agencies have developed and circulated protocol on COVID_19 waste management to the counties for operationalization,” Kagwe said.
Positive cases in the country rose to 189 on Friday, after five new confirmations.
“In the meantime, all of us are advised to properly dispose off the face masks to avoid contamination in line with that protocol,” Kagwe stressed.
The government is already implementing a dusk to dawn curfew and has imposed travel restrictions to and from Nairobi, Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa which have high virus numbers.
“We continue to enhance our capacity and capability within our health facilities to combat this disease. To date over 100,000 healthcare workers have been given COVID_19 related training. Over 4,000 doctors across the country have benefitted from an E based training on the same. We are enhancing testing and other capabilities, we are now able to undertake an average of 600 tests a day,” Kagwe said.
He stated that an additional ten people who had contracted the virus are due to be discharged from the Mbagathi hospital after testing negative, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 22.
“This is good news; indeed, it is a Good Friday. For the first time in a day we have released more people than we took in. the individuals have tested negative twice,” he said.
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