Isiolo County government has in last-minute rush moved to save its tainted image by establishing Coronavirus isolation wards at the Referral Hospital days after Governor Mohamed Kuti was slammed by Kenyans for putting lives of local residents at risk.
Netizens on Monday lashed out at Mr Kuti who chairs Council of Governors Health Committee for failure to establish an isolation ward in his county while he was a member of the National Steering Committee dealing with the novel virus causing havoc across the globe.
“It is very shocking to see that Isiolo has no isolation wards for Coronavirus while Governor Kuti chairs the CoG Health Committee and has been accompanying Health CS for press updates. May Allah rescue our people,” wrote Juma HHassan on Facebook page.
The health department on Tuesday established five isolation beds at the county health management offices within the Referral Hospital but was forced to hurriedly convert classrooms at the adjacent Kenya Medical Training College into 13-bed-isolation wards after residents raised concern over the state of the beds.
The rush is believed to have precipitated conspicous mistakes noticed when the Governor made his address on his government’s preparedness to combat the virus including the wrong wording on the banner that welcomes one to the KMTC wards that went viral on Wednesday with ISIOLOATION instead of ISOLATION.
So serious is that the Referral hospital lacks sanitizers and patients visiting the facility are washing hands with bar soap which could transmit the virus.
And while Mr Kuti yesterday said sanitizers and handwashing kits would be instantly installed at public places such as markets and bus parks, it had not been effected by Thursday.
The Governor announced a raft of measures including enhanced sensitization campaigns, security checks for passengers plying Isiolo-Moyale route from counties at the country’s border and county staff in non-essential departments working from home to prevent spread of Covid-19.
