Kenyan hospitals will be required to test admitted patients for coronavirus if new proposals by the Ministry of Health are passed.
MoH Director-General Dr.Patrick Amoth said Monday that the move will protect frontline health workers and patients admitted in hospital wards from the deadly virus.
Speaking at Afya House, Dr. Amoth said after a review of the guidelines by MoH’s case management team, Kenyans seeking medical services from various hospitals will be required to undergo mandatory testing before they are admitted.
“It is likely that when an asymptomatic case is admitted to the hospital, they may spread the virus to the healthcare workers or other patients in the ward, we need to be able to protect those people,” Dr Amoth said.
“Before you are admitted to hospital, one of the tests that you will have to undergo will be a Covid-19 test, this will protect frontline health workers and other patients whose immune system may be compromised,” he added.
Dr Amoth further said the Ministry of Health will distribute coronavirus test kits to hospitals to ensure that no Kenyan would miss out on treatment because they had not tested for the coronavirus.
“These test-kits will be distributed in a stepwise manner to ensure that this requirement will not be used as a basis of denying Kenyans treatment for other conditions,” said Dr Amoth.
On Monday, Kenya recorded 28 more coronavirus cases bringing the country’s total to 700.
12 people were discharged bringing the total number of recoveries to 251. The number of fatalities from COVID-19 in Kenya is 33.
