know what the truth is, but I hope
none of them are true as I don’t know
what type of person would intentionally
release something that would cause mass
genocide as this is what it would amount
to if it were biological warfare.
We have also witnessed both Cuba and
China send their doctors to Italy to help
with the dire situation and believe me the
images from Italy are very concerning; we
do not have half the resources Italy has
nor its capacity God forbid the situation
escalates to this level in Kenya. The only
thing that will help is that our population
is by far younger than the Italian one and
therefore majority of patients would be
able to have self-limiting disease.
Now down to the challenges that will be
faced in the country. We are only testing
what is believed to positive patients i.e.
those who meet case definition criteria.
The challenge with this is that majority
of spread has been by healthy individuals
with no symptoms. This challenge
inadvertently implies we actually do not
The frontline is not for the faint-hearted. My
plea would be to Government not to spare
any resource in securing the safety of the
Kenyan health-worker Chinese style. I will
not look down on any health-worker who
declines to work without adequate protec-
tive clothing when dealing with a confirmed
case of Coronavirus.
have enough test kits in the country but
fortunately we have capacity to conduct
the tests as one can only imagine this
must be a state of the art laboratory with
capacity to deal with highly hazardous
material with all the protective clothing
and chambers and air supply.
Most spread has been from people who
have come from out of the country and
now we have second generation spread i.e.
from someone who came in contact with a
carrier of the virus sick or healthy we now
call this community spread.
Currently not all people who have
travelled are being tested but being put
on self-quarantine. In as much as this
is a good strategy to contain the virus it
requires people with high integrity and
sorry to say it truth hurts majority of
Kenyans have zero integrity and have a lot
of impunity as can be seen by our leaders
both political and religious and their total
disregard for public safety and breaking
self-quarantine regulations.
We should follow a Russia directive
though I think it is fake news: 14 days
self-quarantine or 5 years in jail. I think
the choice is obvious. In Kenya this
strategy would be good but we all know
the faith we have in the justice system and
my guess is as good as yours if our leaders
would actually be jailed for violating their
quarantine. As usual it will be the small
fish who will fry.
vMany funds have been released but none
addresses the magnitude of the situation.
Masks especially the N95 are not readily
available to health workers on the ground.
I hope the supplies sent by Ma Foundation
will address this issue ASAP. I also want
to thank the government for tasking local
manufactures to produce these items.
I was able to catch on WhatsApp a
video made by the Chinese on how they
dress prior to dealing with patients with
Coronavirus. Just the video alone showed
as healthcare workers we are in big trouble
as the gowns, masks and leave alone the
hazmat suits are in short supply. If you
observe other health workers especially in
Italy, you can see they are not adequately
protecting themselves Chinese style hence
the discrepancy in numbers of health-
workers contracting and even dying from
Covid-19 as compared to China and
countries such as Germany.
The frontline is not for the faint-hearted.
My plea would be to Government not to
spare any resource in securing the safety of
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MAL35/20 ISSUE