Homabay County moves to Kisumu and Nyamira Counties in search of more oxygen supply

Homa Bay County Teaching and Referral Hospital has run out of oxygen supply and beds for admitting Covid-19 patients amid rising cases of infection.

The oxygen shortage was caused by failure of the hospital’s generator to pump the important commodity into cylinders.

The shortage occurs at a time the facility has been receiving more Covid-19 patients as cases continue to rise across the county.

Health workers and caretakers of Covid-19 related patients are worried.

“We brought my sister here in the morning and she is in dire need of oxygen, but we’re told the gas is not available. We don’t know where to get help,” a patient’s relative told the Star.

Homa Bay health executive Richard Muga said they had sent their vans to collect the gas in Kisumu and Nyamira counties.

“The generator developed hitches and can’t pump and fill cylinders for use. We have sent the vans to Kisumu and Nyamira to get us oxygen for rescuing the situation,” Muga said.

Apart from oxygen, the hospital’s beds at the High Dependency Unity are full.

The management is seeking to improvise tents in order to accommodate more patients. Some have already been transferred to Malela and Kandiege Covid-19 isolation centers.

Muga said they had started giving residents the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“We want our people to continually observe Covid-19 protocols because the disease is real and lethal. Residents must now be more careful,” the executive said.

Last week, the Medicines Sans Frontiers which supports the fight against Covid-19 in the county warned of rising infections.

MSF project coordinator in Homa Bay Roshni Mahida said an average of 30 per cent of patients seeking services at the referral hospital were testing positive for the virus.

“The patients go to the hospital to seek medication over some other diseases but when tested, 30 per cent turn out Covid-19 positive,” Mahida said.