Official data nationwide, which shows an average of just 20 deaths a day over the past week, tell only a small fraction of the full story: it looks like everyone knows someone who has died from the virus.
Mount Kenya Hospital, like many others across the country, is pushing new patients away because it simply doesn’t have enough space. It also lacks resources.
Despite a newly installed oxygen compressor, additional cylinders, transported daily, are still needed to meet demand.
Four patients arrive who desperately need a bed in an intensive care unit, but none.
Without an ICU bed, your chances of survival are not good.
Fear of the vaccine
Most patients in Mount Kenya are not vaccinated, not because they did not have access to a vaccine, but because, in most cases, they chose not to take it.
“When you ask why they didn’t get the punch, some are told it’s not available. Others, for the most part, are afraid to have it because they’ve heard about the problems,” Eudiah explains. Wang’ombe, the hospital doctor who runs the facility.
People have also heard stories of vaccinated people falling ill or even dying after receiving the vaccine.
“That’s not true, I’m on the ground. People who have died so far haven’t received anything … There’s a lot of misinformation,” Wang’ombe says.
Even with all the doses available, it would be enough to inoculate approximately 3.5% of the population. But while supply problems are slowly diminishing, vaccine hesitation is rapidly emerging as a very serious problem.
Along a busy street in Barcelona Painful in the city, everyone is masked (it’s law in Kenya) and street vendors sell masks and hand sanitizers along with their usual assortment of household clothes and shoes.
Selling the vaccine, however, is a more difficult task and misinformation is common.
The first stigma surrounding the virus, denial, general misinformation, and some traditional beliefs contribute to unhealthy skepticism about the health system and vaccines. Misinformation, usually spread by word of mouth, has been a challenge for the government to overcome, as health officials are urging citizens to get the vaccine at regular Covid-19 briefings.
“We heard that Kenya was making vaccines against Covid-19, so it scares us. They don’t even know how to make matchboxes or even chopsticks,” says Jane Wangari Kahemu, a mask seller.
The Kenyan government has a long-term plan to produce its own vaccines, but it is still a long way off.
Kahemu would get the vaccine, if he knew for sure he was American, he says.
“Why should I take something I don’t know what will do to my body?” Asks another salesman, holding his son in his arms.
His colleague agrees. “Yeah, and I say ‘YES’ in capital letters, if we understand, maybe we can, but for now it’s a no!”
A blessing for coffin makers
Along a dusty road, next to the local morgue, is a small black car parked in front of a strip of coffin vendors. Lately, it has been a hive of activity.
Outside, a group of young people cut, sketched, plastered and painted a wide range of coffins of different shapes and sizes as quickly as they could.
Before the pandemic, they made less than one coffin a day.
It is now expected that each man will do three a day and will not be able to keep up with the pace of demand, forcing the owner to hire more coffin makers.
Before the pandemic, they made less than one coffin a day, sometimes only one a week. Each man is now expected to make three coffins a day, and the owner has hired twice his normal staff to keep up with demand.
“The workload is too hard for us now,” said Joseph Mureithi, a 34-year-old coffin builder. “We’re working on a very tight schedule and we can even say we’re tired right now.”
He says many people who doubt just don’t know enough, but he believes more and more people are starting to get the vaccine because there are so many people dying from the virus.
“Unless you see the impact of something, you won’t take it seriously,” he says of an unfinished coffin he had just started plastering.
However, many of Mureithi’s colleagues still say they would not get the vaccine if they were offered.
Dennis Maina, a 24-year-old in jeans and a camouflage hat, is one of them.
“A lot of people don’t die because of the virus, they die because of another disease,” he says. He adds that some of the families who bought coffins told him that his loved one was vaccinated.
He adds that some of the families who bought coffins told him that their loved ones were vaccinated.
“Say situation”
“Yes, I will admit, the situation is serious. We haven’t been here before,” Nyeri County Governor Mutahi Kahiga tells CNN from the sidewalk of his well-kept, gated property on the outskirts of the city.
Hospitals not only distract patients, but many people only seek medical attention when it is too late.
“This clearly tells you that our people do self-medication at home. And that’s dangerous. Because when you get to the hospital, you go looking for oxygen, the oxygen levels are too low. We don’t have enough oxygen and it’s we may end up losing you, ”Kahiga said.
Nyeri, a largely rural area with a population of less than a million, has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, with 6.2% of adults, just after Nairobi.
Still, the governor says more than a third of the police officers, teachers and seniors who received the first dose of vaccine were unable to return for the second.
“We have more than 40 tribes, with different traditions, beliefs and taboos, “Kahiga he says. “I think with Covid-19, some of us are still in denial, we continue to maintain the traditional beliefs that run through Africa … that’s why we can be where we are.”
At the moment, the county only has 1,000 doses of vaccine on hand to distribute to 28 vaccination sites. The central government will only send more once they have all been used.
“Death can convince me. If that can keep me from dying, hopefully I’d rather take it.”
Bethlehem Feleke, Larry Madowo, Clement Masombo and Evode Muhire contributed to this story.