NAIROBI, Kenya -- Doctors, pharmacists and dentists in Kenya called off a three-day strike over inadequate personal protective equipment and insurance Thursday after the government acquiesced to their most immediate demands.
However, most other health workers remained on strike as nurses and clinicians vowed to stay off the job until their own demands are met.
Two people reportedly died after they could not get anyone to attend to them at government hospitals in Mombasa and Nairobi, family members said.
An agreement signed Thursday by Kenyan Minister for Health Mutahi Kagwe and representatives of the the Kenya Medical Practitioner Pharmacists and Dentists Union calls for the government to fast-track comprehensive insurance coverage for doctors.
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The government also said it it will provide adequate quality personal protective equipment to all 7,200 doctors represented by the union.
Doctors had said that doing their jobs had become "suicidal" after 14 physicians with covid-19 who could not afford the treatment they were giving to patients subsequently died.
The national insurer had said it could not cover Kenyans during treatment for covid-19.
Kenya has had a total 95,431 confirmed virus cases and 1,652 deaths since the country's first case was reported in mid-March
More than 36,000 clinicians and nurses went on strike three weeks ago, and talks to get them back to work collapsed Monday. Austine Oduor Otieno, deputy secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Clinical Officers, said the government pulled out of the talks as they were making progress.
The nurses and clinicians want the government to increase their "risk allowance," which currently stands at about $27, while doctors get $211.
The impact of nurses and clinical officers not working can be felt across the country since they provide most patient care except in cases requiring specialized treatment, Otieno said.
The family of a 26-year-old university student said he died in Mombasa after being discharged from Coast General Hospital because of the strike. A relative said Levi Mila was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove a growth in his lungs before he was sent home.
"We were at the ward but we were discharged due to the strike," said the student's mother, Esther Juma.
Wycliffe Mzee, 50, died of pneumonia after waiting for hours to be treated at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi despite needing emergency care, his family said.
His brother, Francis Muti, 42, said that because doctors were on strike, they first took Mzee to a private hospital after he collapsed.
"But the bill became too high, and we ended up going to Kenyatta National Hospital, but there was a long queue and by the time they gave him oxygen, he was dead," Muti said.