Patient Attempts to Commit Suicide after Being Quarantined

A 30-year-old Covid-19 patient who was admitted at a quarantine centre in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday, attempted to commit suicide inside the isolation ward on Sunday.

The patient was brought in on Saturday evening and was informed he will be at Mbagathi Infectious Disease Unit for the next 14 days which did not go well with him.

According to a police statement, the patient removed a florescent tube in his room, broke it and used it to slit his throat.

Medical personnel who were checking on the patients heard him struggle and rushed to his rescue. His injuries were attended to and he was counselled by specialists.

“We told him he is young and will recover. We informed him he was not the only one who is sick and that all shall be well,” part of the statement said.

Police were allowed to the scene after wearing protective gear.

By Sunday, Kenya had confirmed 355 cases in the country with the patients being attended to in isolation centres in Nairobi, Mandera, Mombasa among other counties.

Nairobi and Mombasa account for the highest number of cases and tested samples in the country with 17,992 samples tested by Sunday.

The Ministry of Health recently admitted that it was aware of the inconvenience of those quarantined, but maintains the practice is being done in the interest of protecting the public as some of those quarantined have tested positive for Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus.

Last week, an unknown number of people escaped from a quarantine facility at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) headquarters in Nairobi under unclear circumstances.

Various groups have complained that the conditions at some centres are defeating all the intentions of the government in controlling the spread of the coronavirus.