The Ministry of Health, COVID-19 Case Management team is reviewing guidelines to make it possible for anybody admitted in the hospital  to undergo the Covid-19 test as a standard procedure.

Ag. Director General for Health, Dr. Patrick Amoth  said this will not only ensure protection of the front care workers but also other patients admitted in hospital whose immune status could be compromised.

The announcement came after the death of a 33 year old in the last 48 hours, the first to be reported within that age group. “When people of such age group pass on at facility level, they put the our health care workers at risk of contracting Covid 19, the DG said and decried the risk of transmitting the infection to other patients in the ward  especially those with low immunity that are likely to get the infection.

The DG made the remarks during the daily COVID-19 update today that was presided by the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Dr. Rashid Aman who announced 28 new positive cases of coronavirus, from a sample of 841 that were tested in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of positive cases to 700.

From the 28 positive cases 10 cases are from Mombasa, 9  from Kajiado, 7 from Nairobi and 2 from Wajir. Nine of the cases in Kajiado, he explained are all Kenyan truck drivers who were tested at Namanga border point. Five other individuals from Tanzania, he added also tested positive and were referred back to Tanzania.

The spread of the positive cases are spread in several estates. In Mombasa, Mvita has 3 cases while Changamwe, Kisauni and Nyali have two cases each and Likoni has one case. In Nairobi, 3 cases are from Kenyatta National Hospital , 2 from Embakasi East  while Kibra and Pumwani have one case each. In wajir, the cases are in Eldas and Tarbaj.

Today the government also announced a discharge of 12 people from hospital bringing the total number of recoveries from Covid -9 to 251. Meanwhile one patient from Nairobi succumbed bringing to 33 the total number of deaths from the disease.

To enhance communication on Covid 19 pandemic, Dr. Rashid also announced the launch of a WhatsApp chat BOT facility, which will contain basic information on Covid-19 and urged wananchi to seek information from the platform through number 0110719719 .

During the event the Tourism and Wildlife, Cabinet Secretary, Najib Balala who was also present announced that two teams have been established to address the challenges that are facing hoteliers after the announcement of the new protocols on restaurants management. Among the things to be discussed is accommodation to ensure that the reopening of hotels does not compromise the government rules.

“We have all agreed that every restaurant and eatery seeking to reopen should access the protocols as published by the Ministry of Health and also agreed that the establishments also develop their standards operational procedures which are compliant with what MOH protocols,” he noted. and explained that as a government we do not want to burden the business community through the protocols but to make sure that the spread of the virus to the public is stopped and the economy does not stop.

In order to ease some of the protocols given by the MOH and also support the economy,  the CS said that the cost of testing for the businesses has been reduced to Ksh 1000 from the normal charges of 4,000 that the businesses were being charged.

“There will also be no charges by the Nairobi metropolitan services for inspection of the premises neither will there be any charges for the compliance permit. Once the establishment presents their papers, to counties for their compliance certificates it will take 24 hours for it to be processed so there will be no delay or cost,” Balala said.