The Council of Governors (CoG) has raised concerns about the lack of Covid-19 testing kits in counties, a shortage that is likely to slow down the fight against the pandemic in the country.
In a statement on Wednesday, Health Committee chairman Anyang Nyong’o, who also doubles up as governor for Kisumu County, asked the Ministry of Health to avail rapid testing kits (antigens) and PCR Covid-19 testing equipment to all counties without delay.
“Testing across all counties has slowed down due to lack of kits. This, therefore, means that County Governments have no control over the increasing number of Infections,” said Nyong’o.
The governor revealed that currently there are 7,751 beds in 142 isolation centres out of which 6,890 beds are available for patients in 38 counties.
Read: No ICU Beds Available As 10 Doctors Admitted With COVID-19 – KMPDU
The counties have a total of 375 beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) out of which 321 beds are available for new patients.
There is a total of 167 beds in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) out of which 107 beds are available.
In today’s statistics, Nyong’o revealed that counties have received 874,932 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine out of which 642,751 doses have been administered.
A total of 136,084 healthcare workers have been vaccinated across the country. Other recipients are security officers (52,603), teachers (97,786) and Others (356,278).
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“We note with concern that there is low uptake of the vaccine by the target population. As a county we shall enhance advocacy measures to increase public confidence on the effectiveness of the vaccine,” he added.
Nyong’o further revealed that as of April 15, the National Treasury had disbursed Sh10.6 Billion to county governments.
The current outstanding amount owed to the devolved units is Sh83 billion.
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