COVID-19 Precautions and Ministry of Health Guidelines
-
- January 24, 2021
According to recent reports released in December 2020, a new strain of the novel coronavirus has been detected in several countries globally, such as Nigeria, South Africa, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The detection of the new strain raises questions about the rate of threat that coronavirus poses on humans’ lives.
Furthermore, it raises concern about the effectiveness of the measures that governments had put in place to mitigate the deadly virus’s spread. Through different healthcare agencies, governments have put measures to ensure that adequate preparations exist to prevent the spread of the new strain of the virus. Among the measures include the restriction of travel from countries that have detected the virus’s new strain. It also consists of allocating both financial and human resources to ensure mitigation against the severe impact on life’s socio-economic and political aspects.
Back home in Kenya, the early announcement of the new strain in some of the country’s trading partners, such as the United Kingdom, presents an opportunity for the re-examination of the existing COVID-19 precautions and guidelines. Nations across the globe had not put adequate response measures with the announcement of the first case of the coronavirus in Wuhan. However, research has enabled health organizations to develop effective measures to prevent the virus’s high spread.
The fast rate of spreading and the reporting of the adverse health impacts of the coronavirus prompted a collaborative effort between Kenya’s Ministry of Health and global health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop precautionary measures and health guidelines for coronavirus. One of the precautions that the Ministry of Health advised on included the maintenance of social distancing. According to the MoH, individuals should maintain about 1.5 to 2 meters of social distance during social gatherings since it lowers the risk of healthy individuals coming into contact with contaminated surfaces and infected people.
Passengers seating 1.5m apart at the airport lounge
Again, through the Ministry of Health, the government curtailed gatherings in social places such as bars, churches, and public market areas. Shutting down public meeting places helped the government control socializing; thus, it limited the risk of transferring the virus from infected to healthy people. However, reports show diverse socio-economic and political impacts of shutting down social gathering points.
Economically, the precaution led to the loss of jobs and the devastation of many families’ means of survival. Individuals lost their jobs since bars and hotels could not sustain operations with reduced customer interaction. Socially, it led to high crime rates because individuals resorted to uncouth means to provide for their families and survive during the hard times of the virus.
Healthcare practitioners attending to a burial of a COVID-19 deceased patient
The education sector also felt the brunt of the coronavirus because the government, through the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, reported to indefinitely close schools to prevent the spread of the virus among school-going children. While it protected children from potential infection, the closure of schools exposed children to harm in society. Young adolescent boys were exposed to child labour and exploitation since they resorted to fend and help their parents during the crunch economic times. On the other hand, teenage girls in poor communities were exposed to early marriage and adolescent pregnancy, which was reported to increase during the period of school closure.
In the health sphere, the government developed health guidelines to help frontline healthcare workers who took the leading role in the fight against the virus. Through the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority, the Ministry of Health reported purchasing protective gear such as personal protective equipment, gloves, goggles, and isolation gowns. Despite the scandals that followed the purchase of the protective gears – the loss of over KShs 4 billion, the materials contributed to reducing the spread of the virus among caregivers.
According to the Ministry of Health, social gatherings such as funerals remained banned for the coronavirus period. Families had to bury their loved ones within specified time frames to prevent meetings and the potential for the spread of the infection. However, public outrage occurred based on the inhumane manner in which the government handled the dead. The individuals suspected to have died of coronavirus received immediate and un-African burial, which was translated to mean disrespect for the dead since it went against the traditions of Africans. It revealed that the government handled coronavirus cases based on misconceptions without a deep research-based understanding of the issues surrounding the spread and infections of the virus.
