NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 3- The number of healthcare workers who have succumbed to coronavirus in the country rose to eight on Monday, after a nurse died in Kisii County.
Health Ministry’s Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Rashid Aman said the nurse died days after giving birth. She was identified as Marian Awuor Adumbo who worked at Rachuonyo Sub-County Hospital.
“On my own behalf and on behalf of the Ministry of Health, I want to send our sincere condolences to her family and friends. May her soul rest in peace,” Aman said, during a regular press briefing on COVID-19.
The 32-year-old nurse succumbed to coronavirus on Sunday, a week after successfully delivering her baby at the Kisii Level Five Teaching and Referral Hospital.
“Her death brings t0 8 the number of healthcare workers that we have lost to the disease,” Dr Aman said.
Kisii County Director of Public Health Richard Ongware said the nurse died after her lungs collapsed due to the effects of COVID-19.
“Her newborn is very much okay and he has tested negative on several tests,” he said.
Ongware said the patient gave birth normally to a baby boy weighing 1.7 kilograms. The baby was put in an incubator for monitoring.
He said the nurse contracted the virus at 33 weeks of pregnancy, before she started experiencing symptoms of coronavirus, including difficulty in breathing.
The first medical doctor to succumb to the virus was Dr Doreen Lugaliki.
On Sunday, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) asked the government to pay nurses a Sh20,000 monthly permanent risk allowance for their contribution in the fight against coronavirus.
The union’s Secretary-General Seth Panyako said majority of the nurses who are in the front-line in battling the pandemic have contracted the virus hence the need to consider paying them risk allowance.
Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPPDU) acting Secretary General Dr. Chibanzi Mwachonda last week became the latest medic to test positive for coronavirus.
On Monday, 544 new coronavirus cases were recorded raising the county’s caseload to 22, 597.
Dr Aman said the new cases were identified from 2, 653 samples which were tested since Sunday.
382 people had succumbed to the virus by August 3, with 8,740 having recovered.
