The government on Monday discharged a record high of 97 patients, from various hospitals countrywide.
This now raises the total tally of recoveries to 849, the highest number of recoveries that has ever been recorded in a single 24-hour period.
Giving an update of today’s Covid 19 situation at Afya house, the Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Dr. Rashid Aman said as the number of infections rise , the country is also recording a high number of recoveries.
“We are recording more and more people recovering from the disease, which is an indication that, if the virus is detected early, and proper care is availed, recovery is almost certain”, Dr. Rashid said.
He however, pointed out that the rising number of positives also point to containment measures not fully being observed and therefor the concern now is whether the increasing number of infections will challenge and even overwhelm healthcare facilities.
“Let us work together to reduce the chain of transmission, and overcome this disease. Others have done it and we can also do it, by remaining focused on our overall goal. To achieve this, we should adhere to the containment measures”, the CAS said
Dr. Rashid noted that the WHO has issued new guidelines on wearing masks which require that people above 60 years, are advised to wear N95 masks at all times when in public places because of lowered immunity of individuals of that age.
Additionally, he added that the caregivers attending to patients under home based care programs, must also have the N95 masks, when offering care to such individuals.
On the issue of cases today, the CAS said that the country has recorded 95 positive cases out of the 1,096 samples tested.
The total number of positive cases in the country to date is 2,862, and the overall samples tested so far is 98,439.
Out of the positive cases, Dr. Rashid noted that 92 are Kenyans, 3 are foreign Nationals.
The 95 cases are distributed in the counties of Mombasa, (56), Nairobi, 13), Busia, (10), Kajiado, (6), Kilifi, (3), Kitui, Kwale, Garissa and Marsabit have (1) case each.
Marsabit, the CAS said, has become the latest county to report a COVID-19 case, bringing the total number of counties affected to 38.
The cases are distributed in the sub-counties with Mombas which has 56 cases from Mvita, (22), Changamwe, (13), Nyali, seven (7), Kisauni, six (6), Likoni, five (5) and Jomvu, three (3) cases.
In Nairobi, the 13 cases are from; Kibra, (10) while Lang’ata, Kasarani and Dagoretti North, have(1) case each. In Busia, (9) of the 10 cases are of truck drivers from Malaba border point, while Busia border point has one (1) case.
In Kajiado, the 6 cases are from Kajiado Town, (3), Kajiado East, (2) and Kajiado North, (1) case. In Nyeri, all the (3) cases are of community nurses from Nyeri Central. In Kilifi, the (3) cases are from Kilifi North, while Kitui has (1) case from Kitui Central, Kwale (1) case from Msambweni, Garissa (1) case from Dadaab and Marsabit (1) case, from North Horr.
The CAS noted that the three healthcare workers who have tested and have turned positive in Nyeri clearly shows that Our healthcare workers being the frontline soldiers in this fight, are at a greater risk of contracting the disease and therefore we should not take them for granted as they put their lives on the line to protect the nation
In terms of gender, the CAS said there were 57 males and 38 females with their ages ranging from the youngest who is one-year, while the oldest is 72.
Sadly, Dr. Rashid said that the country has 1 more patient from Nairobi to the disease, bringing the total fatality number to 85.
Dr. Rashid said the government is dedicated to upgrading both infrastructure and human resource capacities in our healthcare systems in order to manage the cases.
The Director of Public Health, Dr. Francis Kuria said that the backlog in testing in various labs especially in Mombasa and Nairobi is due to the low supply of the kits but said over the weekend they were able to clear the backlog especially for the truck drivers.
“We are still facing issues with supply management and process of clearing consignments but we are expecting manual test kits that we will be able to test and break down the snarl up at the border point especially malaba”, he said
Dr. Kuria explained that they have been able through health cares deployed in Malaba to ease the congestion to test between 5000 and 5000 and issue them with certificates and reducing the jam from 74 km to 34 km.
By Wangari Ndirangu
