County loses 19 people to coronavirus

A patient with breathing complications is on Oxygen being taken to CT scan at Kakamega county referral hospital on June 4, 2021.[Benjamin Sakwa,Standard]

At least 19 people have died from Covid-19 in Kakamega within the last 23 days, Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has said.

On Tuesday, Mr Oparanya said the county was losing one person every day. “Many more people are being diagnosed with the disease every day. Our facilities are overwhelmed... This calls for stricter enforcement of the 7pm to 4am curfew.”

He said the county’s main referral hospital had 20 Covid patients, three in ICU, seven on oxygen, two using ventilators while two were in isolation. Six others were isolated at Mumias Level Four hospital.

“With the surge in numbers, we have been forced to procure an oxygen processing plant from France to meet the high demand for oxygen. The machine is expected to arrive by the end of this week. The available plant does not have the capacity to process enough oxygen to meet the growing demand,” Oparanya said.

He said the new machine would produce 1,000 litres of oxygen per minute. The current one only pumps 300 litres per minute. 

Kakamega is among the 13 counties in Western Kenya that have been declared disease infected. 

Oparanya said the counties in the red zone are working together to fight the virus.

“We have admitted, in our hospitals, patients from as far as Vihiga and Siaya counties in the spirit of standing together against this pandemic. We are working together to contain the spread of the disease,” said Oparanya.

He said the Lake Economic Region Bloc governors will meet on Friday to review the Covid-19 containment measures.

“If we find more stringent measures necessary, we will not hesitate to advise the national government to do so,” said the governor who has also ordered his nonessential staff members to work from home for the next 14 days.

[Benard lusigi]