Equity Group Foundation and the Kenya COVID-19 Fund Board have commenced the distribution of the second consignment of locally manufactured personal protective equipment (PPE) to public hospitals across all 47 counties.
All final year medical and dental students from 11 universities with medical and dental schools will also benefit.
This is part of its sustained efforts to protect medics from the COVID-19 virus.
The consignment includes 266,000 respirator masks, 2.7 million 3- ply surgical masks, 50,000 reinforced disposable gowns, 2 million pairs of nitrile gloves, 60,000 pairs of medical scrubs, 50,000 coveralls with shoe covers, 300,000 head covers, 55,000 face shields, 34,000 pairs of goggles and 200,000 disposable aprons.
The consignment worth Ksh 125M will be distributed to public hospitals.
While the consignment designated for final year medical and dental students is valued at Kshs 10M, bringing the total value of the consignment to Ksh 135M.
A total of 11 universities whose final year students were recalled to complete their studies, include – University of Nairobi, Moi University, Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology, Maseno University, Masinde Muliro University, Egerton University, Kenya Methodist University, Mount Kenya University and Uzima University will benefit from the PPEs.
They will be issued to the final year medical and dental students based on their needs.
Commenting on the exercise, Dr James Mwangi Equity Group Managing Director and CEO, who is also the Chair of the Kenya COVID-19 Fund Board Health Committee noted that both Equity Group Foundation and the Kenya COVID-19 Fund Board remain committed to fulfilling their promise of supporting the medical fraternity serving in public hospitals with PPEs.
This,he said will safeguard health workers serving on the frontline in mitigating the COVID- 19 pandemic.
“With the escalating numbers of COVID-19 cases, it is critical that we protect our healthcare workers who continue to serve with fortitude. This second round of PPEs will equip even more of our healthcare workers. Now that the finalist medical students have resumed classes and clinical rounds, we felt that they too should be protected as they apply themselves in their last practical lap of training alongside their colleagues at the frontlines,” said Dr Mwangi.
Similar to the establishment of the Hospital Liaison Committees, the medical student associations in the various universities have come together to establish working committees led by students who are part of the Equity Leaders Program.
The working Committees will serve the primary purpose of managing and tracking the use of the PPEs as well as share feedback on the quality of the PPEs.
They will also identify the various needs that they may require support to ensure that they remain safe while serving Kenyans.
The Kenya COVID-19 Fund Board Chair, Jane Karuku reiterated the Fund’s commitment to remain at the forefront in strengthening COVID-19 mitigation measures.
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