Ten patients have succumbed to Covid 19 related ailments as new infection hit a record 213 within the last 24 hours.
The ten fatalities becomes the highest number the nation has ever registered in a day since the pandemic was reported earlier in the year.
The new cases were detected out of 6,024 samples presented for testing further pushing the national tally to 4,257 out of a Cumulative figure of 130.498 samples so far taken for testing.
Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Ministry of health, Dr. Rashid Aman regretted that the country had lost the highest number of people to Covid 19 patients in a single day bringing the total number of fatalities to 117.
He informed the nation during the daily update on the status of the pandemic that the latest trends was a clear indication that the country faced an uphill task to tame and flatten the infection curve.
He said it was evident that the viral infection was widespread in Nairobi’s Westlands, Kibra, Langata, Embakasi and Dagorreti, where new cases have lately been reported in alarming numbers.
“This situation should be of concern to all of us, particularly, residents of these areas. It requires serious soul searching by residents of these estates, on what it is that they are not doing right. Could it be that the containment measures are not being adhering to? Something is not right, and they must move with speed to rectify this before things spiral out of control” Dr.. Rashid said
Equally, he noted that the the spread of the virus at the border points of Malaba, Busia, Taveta and Namanga still remains a great concern to the government.
Out of the positive cases today , the CAS noted that 198 are Kenyans and 15 are foreigners. 151 are males, and 62 are females with the youngest to be infected being one-year-old, while the oldest is 73.
In terms of distribution by Counties, Nairobi leads with 136 cases, followed by Mombasa with (32), Kajiado (13), Kiambu (7), Busia (5), Nakuru (4), Machakos (4), Garissa (3), Isiolo (3), Taita Taveta (2), Kitui, Migori, Narok and Embu have one (1) case each.
The distribution of the new cases by sub counties is as follows; in Nairobi the 136 cases are from; Dagoretti North, (36), Westlands, (25), Kamukunji, (17), Kibra, (13), Makadara, (11), Starehe, (8), Langata, (9), Kasarani, (6), Embakasi East, (4), Embakasi North, (3), Ruaraka, (3) and Embakasi Central, (1).
In Mombasa, Mvita leads with (20) cases, followed by Likoni and Kisauni, with (5) cases each, and Changamwe (2). In Kajiado, the 13 cases are from Kajiado Central (7), Kajiado North (5) and Kajiado West, (1). In Kiambu, the 7 cases are from Ruiru (4), Kiambu Town (2), and Lari (1), while in Busia, the 5 cases are from Teso North (3) and Teso South (2). In Nakuru, the cases are from Naivasha (2) and Gilgil (1), while in Machakos the cases are in Athi River (2), and Machakos Town (2).
In Garissa, the cases are from Daadab (2) and Garissa township (1). In Isiolo, the three cases are from Isiolo Town. The (2) cases in Taita Taveta are in Voi, while in Kitui, the one case is from Kitui South. The case in Migori is from Suna East, whereas that in Narok is from Narok North, and finally, the case in Embu is from Manyatta.
“ On a positive note, Dr. Rashid said that 106 patients were discharged from various hospitals, bringing the total cumulative number of recoveries to 1,459
Health Acting Director General; Dr. Patrick Amoth said that out of the 10 mortalities today only one is a community home based death while 7 of them had underlying disease, 4 with diabetes, 1 with High Pressure, 1 with Bone Cancer and one had HIV.
He explained that usually home based care deaths are associated with the people being symptomatic which can be detrimental as they can shed virus in large quantities putting members of a house hold at risk of transmission.
He lauded Mombasa County which was initially reporting home based deaths saying it has ceased although the government will still be on the lookout.
Dr. Amoth explained that Asymptomatic means that one tests positive for Covid but throughout the span one does not get any symptoms while pre-symptomatic is when one does not test positive for the disease but over the period later develops the symptoms.
In Kenya, he said that 88 percent of people are normally asymptomatic and don’t develop symptoms so it’s only 12 percent who are pre-symptomatic getting fever, loss of taste, difficulty in breathing or cough.
“We are uploading module of home based care and for over 60,000 community health volunteers and 30,000 health care workers to ensure that the instructions, guidelines and protocols of home based care are followed to the letter not only to relieve burden of health care system being overwhelmed but also to bring the services close to the people”, Dr.Amoth said .
During the briefing today, Stanbic Bank Kenya in partnership with Base Titanium, Centum, Gulf Energy, Valar Frontier, and Africa Practice handed over a total of 192 ventilators worth KSh147 million to the Ministry of Health.
Stanbic Bank Kenya’s Chief Executive, Charles Mudiwa said, “We are at a critical stage where the infection rates are increasing. It is therefore important that we strengthen the capacity of our health systems so we can register more recoveries and thereby flatten the curve.”
By Wangari Ndirangu
