County governments now have to directly acquire Personal Protective Equipment for their health workers, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has said.
Kagwe said this will help deal with shortage complaints from health workers in the counties.
Speaking during the Covid-19 briefing on Tuesday, he said counties have been equipped with enough financial support from the government that is specific to Coronavirus control.
"The ministry has gone ahead to provide exemptions to county governments from procuring PPEs from Kemsa and been advised on the qualified suppliers," he said.
Further, the CS said all equipment that will forthwith be acquired by the government through local or international donors shall be distributed to the vulnerable counties.
He urged counties officials to make proper use of the resources to protect Kenyans from the virus.
"This decentralization of provision of PPEs should be a good thing and should now ease any county from complaining about lack of PPEs," he said.
This is one of the resolutions made on Monday in the fifth extraordinary session of the National and County government co-ordinating summit chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
After the meeting, Uhuru in his address directed the Ministry of Health to retain retired ICU staff to support medical workers in the counties.
"The Ministry of Health will develop a protocol to temporarily retain retired anesthetists and ICU staff to support the medical staff assigned to dealing with serious Covid-19 cases in the Counties,"he said.
He also ordered an extension to the nationwide curfew for another 30 days due to the surging numbers of new infection.
The Head of State issued a ban on selling alcohol in restaurants and eateries for the next 30 days, effective midnight on Monday.
He said all bars will remain closed indefinitely, adding that those that don't adhere will have their licences permanently withdrawn.