Catalytic COVID-19 Action Project’s Response to COVID-19 Outbreak in Kiambu County

Overview

 The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. After that, the global number of infections and deaths increased exponentially. As of August 4, 2022, Kenya has the 8th highest number of COVID-19 cases among 47 reporting African nations: 337,802 confirmed cases, 331,711 recoveries, and 5,672 deaths. Within Kenya, Kiambu County has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases. Kiambu County reported its first COVID-19 case in March of 2020, and by August 2022, had reported 21,209 confirmed cases and 896 deaths. 

On July 14, 2021, The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) Kenya, in collaboration with Kiambu County, rolled out an initiative funded by FIND and Unitaid, to strengthen the public health response to COVID-19 in 12-subcounties within Kiambu. This was called the Catalytic COVID-19 Action (CCA) project.

The CCA team, in collaboration with the Kiambu government, conducted an Intra-action review (IAR) to reflect on the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and identify both best practices and lessons learned. Their goal was to apply these insights on a tighter time scale to optimize the COVID-19 response in Kiambu county. In August 2022, after one year of implementation, the CCA Kenya team, GIS, KENCO, CRISSP, the County Health Management Team (CHMT), and subcounty representatives joined together to conduct the first IAR meeting in Kiambu. In total, 55 participants attended. The three-day IAR meeting reviewed actions and results between March 31, 2020, and July 31, 2022.

“The IAR meeting was a success for ensuring we continually work to make the CCA project effective in the county.
We used the IAR process to see where we were successful and identify where we can improve our response efforts
in the coming year.”
—Doctor Gitau, CCA Project lead