Siaya county’s newly-constructed 300-bed capacity isolation wards are ready for use.
Construction OF the Sh105 million units in Siaya, Ambira and Bondo health facilities was launched in July by Governor Cornel Rasanga.
They will be equipped with beds, scanners, Covid-19 testing kits, PPE and the oxygen system.
The project management committee said the wards met the set standards. The committee is waiting for the county government to schedule a date for the handing over.
Before the new wards were built, the county had 120 isolation beds. The new beds raise the capacity to 420.
“This is a global challenge but we should not lose hope. I want to assure Siaya people that my government is not leaving anything to chance when it comes to preparedness,” Rasanga said.
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Earlier, the governor inspected the Sh12 million county blood bank project, CT-scan machines, a fully equipped dialysis unit and ICU units at Siaya Referral Hospital. He urged the public to seek services from the facilities.
He said that accident victims, people undergoing surgery, anaemic, sickle cell and cancer patients who previously went to Kisumu for the services will now depend on blood from the new facility.
The isolation wards were constructed by Aberland Enterprises.
Siaya’s Covid-19 ill-preparedness has put its general performance under scrutiny. While addressing the nation, The President Uhuru Kenyatta cited Siaya and Busia counties, whose failure to avail more beds in isolation centres reflected the general slow emergency preparations for a full-blown Covid-19 scenario. Uhuru said Siaya had a paltry 10 beds in its Covid-19 isolation, nine of which were already occupied with patients.
