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The government has directed hospitals not to turn away patients with Covid-19 symptoms.
This comes as the country recorded 397 new cases of the virus with a high of 12 deaths.
The national tally of the cases now stands at 14,168, with 6,258 recoveries while the death toll has risen to 250.
During the daily update yesterday, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman (pictured) said every facility should be ready to handle Covid-19 cases.
He regretted that some hospitals turned away patients with Covid-19 symptoms.
“From where we sit as a ministry, this is like any other disease and we would like to fight any move that would lead to this disease being stigmatised,” he said.
Aman, however, said due to unfamiliarity with the illness, some institutions might fear to admit such patients.
“Institutions must be prepared for the reality we have, that community transmission of Covid-19 is here. This means we will get people with symptoms and we should treat them just like we will treat any other person who will come with any other disease,” said Aman.
He asked health workers to take care while handling patients considering the infectious nature of the disease.
Not all hospitals, however, are supposed to handle Covid-19 cases, according to the ministry’s earlier directives. Counties are required to have designated facilities to treat the patients.
“We should not have institutions exclusively turning away patients who seem to have Covid-19 symptoms. This is something we do not want to happen as it hampers the fight against the disease,” said Aman.
On Monday, Mandera County Health Executive Abdinur Hussein banned private facilities from handling Covid-19 cases and directed that all patients should be referred to Mandera County Teaching and Referral Hospital.
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