Covid-19: 97 medics infected, one dead in Mombasa county

Ninety-seven medics in Mombasa County have been infected with Covid-19, the health department has reported.

One of those infected has since died, the departed said. The first case of the virus was reported in the country in March.

Those affected are doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and nutritionists. They are from public and private health facilities.

Mombasa County director of communication Richard Chacha said the dead was a female nurse.

On Wednesday, Kenya National Union of Nurses county secretary Peter Maroko said one of their members had died of coronavirus-related complications at the Likoni Sub-county Hospital last Friday.

It also emerged two health workers at the same hospital had tested positive for Covid-19 and seven others were in isolation centres.

Meanwhile, Mombasa and Kwale counties had a cumulative budget of more than Sh330 million for Covid-19 containment programmes.

Mombasa County Assembly approved a total of Sh200 million, which went into setting up the Technical University of Mombasa Covid-19 Isolation Centre complete with about 300 beds, oxygen and personal protective equipment.

The Sh200 million was also part of the Emergency Household Relief and Nutrition Support Project introduced by Governor Hassan Joho as economic stimulus programme during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Kwale County Government received a grant of Sh137 million to help combat the spread of coronavirus.

According to the state of the county address presented to the county assembly by Governor Salim Mvurya recently, Sh30.5 million was allocated for the expansion of the Covid-19 unit at Msambweni Hospital to accommodate 200 additional isolation beds. This raised the number of such beds to 540.