Ministry launches centre to support Covid-19 healthcare providers
What you need to know:
- 178 people tested positive for the disease in the last 24 hours.
The Ministry of Health has launched a call centre at Kenyatta National Hospital to offer psychosocial support to healthcare providers handling Covid-19 cases across the country.
“Mental health wellness for healthcare workers is very critical. They need psychosocial support,” Kenya Medical Association (KMA) president Jacqueline Kitulu said.
Speaking after launching the facility, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi said the centre will act as a platform where members can share ideas and hold professional interactions.
She added that the centre is part of technological initiatives the ministry has launched in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The initiative was developed in conjunction with the Ministry of ICT, Konza Techno City and Equity Bank.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Joseph Mucheru said there is need to help front-line staff handle stress.
“Healthcare workers are not immune to the stresses we go through. They see people suffering and others dying. They also need support, even when they are in remote areas,” Mr Mucheru said.
Dr Mwangangi said the ministry has been using surveillance and response for contact tracing, adding that they had launched an electronic medical records (EMR-Web) system, which can register suspected cases, make laboratory investigation orders and facilitate contact listing.
“It follows up contacts of positive cases, manages quarantine sites, generates reports as well as tracks cases,” the CAS said.
The Kenya EMR Covid-19 tracking system was built to undertake case-based surveillance of Covid-19 in the country, she explained.
The system consists of two applications: an Open MRS-based tracking system that is web-based and a tracking application based on an open-source community health toolkit (CHT).
“The Covid-19 tracking application supports contact tracing and is also used by the rapid-response teams to capture data relating to suspected cases,” she said.
Dr Mwangangi added that in conjunction with the ICT ministry, they have set up teleconferencing facilities across the country to enable webinars on Covid-19 case management nationally, regionally and globally.
“MOH has adopted the use of mobile and web-based applications for data collection and reporting so as to monitor and respond to the pandemic,” she said.
She said the systems were already being used by the Emergency Operation Centre.
Thursday, a total of 178 people tested positive for the disease from a sample of 3,918.
Another two patients died, bringing to 132 the total number of deaths. Nairobi led with 100 cases, followed by Kajiado with 21 cases.
Other counties that reported new cases were Migori (17), Kiambu (16), Busia (8), Mombasa (7), Machakos (4) and Nakuru (2). Uasin Gishu, Kericho and Taita-Taveta recorded a case each.
