Nurses and Clinical officers threaten to strike on Monday amid rising Covid-19 cases.

Nurses and Clinical officers have threatened to down their tools from Monday August 10 citing poor working conditions especially during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the country.

The Kenya Union of Nurses Secretary General Seth Panyako on Wednesday August 5 stated that both essential and front-line health workers are facing delays in the implementation of the presidential directive to pay risk allowances.

Other payments include responsibility allowances and insurance covers which the nurses say lead to serious demoralization.

“From Monday it will not be business as usual in this country. You can’t work when you don’t have food, you have children in the house and you can’t pay your rent,” Panyako said.

On his part the Kenya Union Clinical Officers Chair Peterson Wachira stated that the counties owe haven’t paid the workers for the last three months.

“We are concerned by the continued frustration by the counties & national gov’t. To date, our members have not received May, June & July salaries. From Monday, we will not report for duty unless dues are paid in full”, Wachira stated

They also lamented the failure by counties to setup isolation facilities to cater for the front-line health workers who contract the disease in their line of duty.

“WHO has said that this virus is a work injury hazard hence treatment of all front-line health workers should be free,” he added.

If the nurses will make good their threat and engage in an industrial strike, the country will be staring at a possible crisis in the health sector, with the rising cases of Covid-19 in the country lacking health workers to take care of those affected.

The country has a caseload of 23,873 so far as at Wednesday August 5 according to the Ministry of Health.