The decision to re-open the country’s economy following the COVID-19 Pandemic now lies in the hands of individual Governors.
President Uhuru Kenyatta says the decision will largely be determined by the level of preparedness by the devolved units to respond to new infections.
“I say this because the nation is the sum total of all the 47 counties. If the counties have met the necessary thresholds, then the nation will be ready to re-open,” he said.
The President was speaking at a virtual meeting of the national and county governments COVID-19 Pandmeic coordinating summit.
Also in attendance were Deputy President Dr William Ruto and representatives of religious and business sectors.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said Covid-19 infections in the country were on the rise and advised against re-opening of the economy before the response preparedness threshold agreed upon is fully met.
Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya said Counties had attained a total of 6,898 isolation beds against the national target of 30,500 units.
He said, 12 counties had met the 300 per county isolation beds threshold while 34 devolved units were on course to meet the target within the month.
“36 counties have a cumulative sum of 343 ICU beds while 28 counties have a total of 337 ventilators,” he added.
On human resources, Governor Oparanya reported that a total of 16,914 health personnel had been trained on Covid-19 management among them 59,449 community health volunteers.
“We propose that a multi-agency approach is applied to disease containment through the improvement of testing capacity; contact tracing and enforcing the social distancing mechanisms,” he stated.
He proposed that the reopening of the economy to have a County specific context. This, he argued, will consider the County specific sector priorities and the health system able to cope.