The government has standardized and scaled up diagnostic capacity and current there are a total of 33 public and private laboratories across 12 counties.
In a addition, three mobile laboratories have been deployed in Maai Mahiu, Namanga, and Malaba border points where cumulatively 353,727 samples have been tested.
Giving an update on the COVID 19 situation in the country on Thursday, the Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Dr. Mercy Mwangangi said the ministry is also conducting targeted testing in identified hotspots in Nairobi and Mombasa counties.
“Mandatory screening of cargo vessels crew is ongoing at all points of entry to minimize the risk of importation of additional cases from other countries and cumulatively 896,612 individuals have been screened across all points of entry from 21st January to 07 August 2020”, she said.
Dr. Mwangangi noted that public health emergency operations center is fully activated and continues to coordinate response measures in order to provide the daily situation reports to inform planning.
“Teams of rapid responders and contact tracers are on the standby to investigate any alert and follow up contacts of confirmed cases at sub national level”, she said .
The efforts by the Ministry with close collaboration with the World Health Organization country office to build capacity of sub county , she said has seen 21 counties earmarked for re training staff for the same programme in the coming weeks.
Dr. Mwangangi said that as of yesterday Nairobi continues to lead with the number of confirmed cases now standing at 16,781 followed by Mombasa with 2,189, Kiambu is third with 2,078 followed by Kajiado with 1575.
Out of all the counties that have recorded cases only West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet have recorded single digit numbers namely 6 and 5 respectively “, she said
Other with high cases are Machakos 1015, Busia 865, Nakuru 604, Uasin Gishu 348, Migori 333, Nyeri 191, Garissa 176, Narok 157, Kisumu 153, Kericho 135, Laikipia 131, Kilifi 128, Murang’a 122, and Makueni 111.
Meru has so far 68 cases followed by Kwale 66, Bomet 65, Kisii 64, Siaya 63, Turkana 61, Taita Taveta 56, Nandi 46, Kakamega 45, Trans Nzoia 44, Isiolo ,36, Kirinyaga 36, Wajir 35, Lamu 34, Nyandarua 32, Kitui 30, Bungoma 28, Embu 27, Mandera 26, Baringo 24, Vihiga 23, Tharaka Nithi 22 , Homa Bay 18, Nyamira 15, Marsabit 13, Tana River 13, Samburu 11 .
Today’s Corona Virus statistics, Dr. Mwangangi said shows 650 people tested positive for COVID 19 from 6768 samples tested in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of positive to 28,754.
Cumulatively so far 375,859 have been tested. Out of today’s cases 633 are Kenyans while 17 are foreigners. 391 are males and 259 females while the youngest case is a year old baby while the oldest is 97.
The distribution of the cases by counties is that Nairobi leads with 356, Kiambu 53, Nakuru 48, Machakos 26,Kajiado 20, Busia 20, Uasin Gishu 15, Laikipia 15 and the 10th County Bomet has 10 cases.
Dr. Mwangangi said that today 490 patients have also recovered from the disease, 308 from home based programme while 182 have been discharged from the various hospitals bringing the total number of recovers to 15,100.
Sadly 4 patients succumbed to the disease today bringing the total number of fatality to 460.
The Ag. Director General MOH, Dr. Patrick Amoth said the country continues to celebrate the home based care programme which is is doing well as it is cheaper and and removes responsibility of people being in health care facilities so that they are reserved for those with severe or in critical condition.
“Currently Close to 60 percent recoveries are from home based care even though we lag behind global recovery rate on average because of our reporting back for example today’s number are from 23 out of 27 counties as we wait for more figures”, Dr. Amoth explained.
Today was the 154th day since the pandemic struck in the country and globally the first case was reported in December 2019 , rapidly spread and affected many countries across the globe. As of today the positive numbers globally stands at 20.6 million while there are 749,000 deaths reported.
By Wangari Ndirangu
