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{
    "id": 989445,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/989445/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Muranga CWR, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Sabina Chege",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 884,
        "legal_name": "Sabina Wanjiru Chege",
        "slug": "sabina-wanjiru-chege"
    },
    "content": "with priority being given to procurement of emergency consumables to facilitate protection of health workers, sample collection, and test for COVID-19. Emergency procurement valued at Ksh849,258,681 were initiated through Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) with a focus on essential commodities and services, in addition to Government to Government engagement. There is an attachment entitled \"Statement in the Distribution List to the County Governments\", by KEMSA. The Government has also engaged the following local firms to produce facemasks and make them affordable to the common mwananchi whose list is also attached. The President issued a three-month moratorium for counties to source critical medical commodities and equipment outside the KEMSA procurement framework. Hon. Members, this will allow counties to source for these items in a faster way in the market. Regarding the equipment and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed capacities, evidence indicates that access to ICU services is the most critical factor in determining survival among COVID-19 patients with severe illness. The Ministry of Health has taken stock of ICU capacity country wide and is rationalizing to ensure equitable distribution across the counties. The current ICU bed capacity for general patients in Kenya is at 518 in 79 health facilities; 31 public and 48 private facilities. Additionally, there are 297 functional ventilators comprising of 90 functional ventilators in public facilities and 154 in private facilities in the country. Each site has a total of 10 ventilators with 6 ICU beds. These are the sites for isolation. The Government of Kenya will receive a donation of 105 ventilators from friendly nations, organizations and individuals. Further, the Ministry of Health has procured 30 ventilators of which eight have already been delivered. The received ventilators will be distributed to the counties based on the identified gaps. Additionally, the World Bank has already procured 200 ventilators for the Ministry of Health through their procurement procedure as a contingency measure to curb the global shortage. Therefore, this one is done directly by the World Bank and not by the Government. Hon. Members as you are aware, the Government has also received several donations from the Jack Ma Foundation based in China to address the demand of COVID-19 pandemic and for this we wish to send our gratitude to the Jack Ma Foundation for this noble gesture. Hon. Speaker and Members, regarding testing and rollout of mass testing, the country has established 10 functional testing laboratories across the country which shall have a testing capacity of 37,000 tests per day including the National Influenza Center, KEMRI Influenza Lab, KEMRI Kilifi, KEMRI Busia, KEMRI Kisumu, Kenyatta National Hospital, HIV Lab at National Public Health Lab, KEMRI HIV Lab, Aga Khan University Hospital, Lancet Laboratory and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, which started testing on Monday, 20th April 2020. Hon. Speaker, in addition to the above mentioned test centres, each county has GeneXpert equipment capable of at least testing 20 tests per day for each machine. Some counties have three GeneXperts and others have four depending on the number of county and sub-county hospitals. The GeneXpert cartridges have been procured so that counties will be able to conduct at least 3,000 tests each day without relying on reference laboratories. Fifty six out of 187 facilities with GeneXpert machines are already identified for on- boarding as testing sites once the cartridges are available. This will bring the testing capacity in the country to 37,000 daily. The proposed approach to target testing Phase I, 50,000 tests will be as follows: The suspected cases countrywide - 1,400, Contacts of confirmed cases - 3,000, Frontline Health workers - 3,000, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}