In an address to the press on Wednesday, April 8, Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi disclosed that the state was reviewing criteria in which positive patients with mild symptoms would receive healthcare from their homes.
She further disclosed that the state was coming up with a proper system in which health care providers would be able to monitor the progress of the patients under quarantine at home.
“What, however, we are doing as we extend quarantine in different facilities is we are reviewing, we do have set criteria where our field medical team is employing an assessment tool to be able to determine which centres were able to adhere to the quarantine measures.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe (Left) and his Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi during a press briefing in March 2020.
“With regards to discharge from isolation, as we roll out out mass testing and intervention, it is likely that we may find many more Kenyans in the country who test positive and because our strained capacity in putting all these Kenyans in one place,” stated Mwangangi
“One of the measures that we are looking within the coming weeks would be a home-based healthcare protocol for mild cases. We actually advocate for home-based care.
“Through our hotline and support structures, we may be able to monitor patients and ensure they observe good self-quarantine measures at home,” she added.
305 samples had been tested in the preceding 24 hours, seven of which returned positive.
Of all the 179, 3 patients are aged below 15 years, 49 between 15 and 29 years, 114 aged between 30 and 59 years, and 16 patients above 60 years.
During the address, Mwangangi revealed that the patient who was in critical care had been moved to the general ward and the condition of the remaining 178 was described as mild to moderate.
