Rethink decision to hurriedly close Covid isolation centres

Since the coronavirus hit Kenya in March and infections continued to surge, there have been many takeaways for us.

Admittedly, the pandemic is a foremost disaster but also a teacher that reminds us of the need to establish working systems.

It laid bare inadequacies in our healthcare systems and more so, our general ill-preparedness in handling health emergencies of such magnitude.

Determined to stem the risk of infection in April, the government unveiled stern Covid-19 protocols such as the closure of restaurants and bars, curfews, the requirement to wear masks, social distancing, banning of gatherings and washing of hands.  

To cap it all, the Ministry of Health opened up Covid-19 isolation or quarantine centres, where those who tested positive with mild and asymptomatic cases and contacts of confirmed cases were to be held until they recover.

The centres were opened in a huff in every county and millions of shillings spent to equip them. In them also, Kenyans who broke the Covid-19 protocols were to be confined for 14 days until their status was confirmed. However, without a clear justification, the government is hurriedly shutting down most of these centres, with little activities on the remaining ones. What’s more worrying is that the isolation facilities are being phased out despite a national tally of more than 30,000 infections.

In Nairobi for instance, some 52 hotels were selected for use as quarantine centres. However, they no longer operate for this purpose. For the last two weeks, the 148-bed capacity centres in Kisumu have been empty with no cases referred.

A spot check across counties reveals that most of the designated quarantine centres have cleared the last batch of patients said to have been primary contacts of Covid-19 patients. It should worry us that this decision may not have been backed by a thorough situational analysis.   

In some centres, beds, mattresses and benches are slowly gathering dust while walkways are being overrun by weeds. We believe that despite the adoption of the home based self-quarantine, the closure of quarantine facilities is a blow to the Covid-19 fight. The government received funds in excess of Sh500 million to improve these facilities, which are now not useful to the fight. This wastage doesn’t bode well for the coronavirus fight. We urge authorities to rethink this move.