President Uhuru Kenyatta has applauded the efforts by Kenyatta University Students for coming up with a ventilator prototype to help in the fight against COVID-19.
Kenyatta University students developed ventilators for COVID-19 patients who developed difficulty breathing since they are only a handful in the country.
Speaking during a presser today, April 16, 2020, the Head of State commended the efforts initiated by Kenyans of goodwill to win the fight against COVID-19, adding that everyone should take responsibility.
“Kenyans are showing they can invent and innovate… knowing our character is key to building our confidence to solve even more challenges that face our people,” Uhuru said.
Read: COVID-19 Cases Rise To 234 In Kenya As 1 More Patient Dies
The invention was done by 16 KU students in under one week and detailed the prototype, a cubical unit made of hard silver plastic parts with pipes connecting to an oxygen tank and two other pipes delivering the air.
The mechanical unit is controlled from a computer on top of it from where doctors can monitor the concentration of oxygen in the air that the machine is pumping into the patients’ lungs as well as control the ventilators’ intensity.
If approved, the University Vice-Chancellor indicated that the institution was capable of producing 50 ventilators per week.
One of the students, Bernard Karanja, a fifth-year pharmacy student stated that they came up with the idea following a shortage of ventilators witnessed in other countries.
Read Also: COVID-19: Chelsea To Provide Free Meals To Health Workers, Elderly
“We came up with the idea to make a ventilator when we heard that there were in short supply and with almost all the countries in lockdown, we could not import them from elsewhere,” he said.
Further, President Uhuru announced a welfare package for health workers to cushion medical workers on the frontline against COVID-19.
He also directed medical insurance companies to cover hospital staff managing the COVID-19 pandemic.
A COVID-19 welfare weekly stipend has also been established in Nairobi targetting the vulnerable people who will be assisted.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874. You can also find us on Telegram through www.t.me/kahawatungu
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
