Covid 19 infections in the country surpassed the 7000 mark after 247 new cases were confirmed over the last 24 hours.
This bring to 7,188 the number of people who have so far tested positive to the highly contagious disease since the first case was reported in the country earlier this year.
, Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dr. Rashid Aman while issuing the daily update on the status of the pandemic in the country said the new figures were detected from 4147 samples submitted for testing.
“Our Cumulative samples tested so far now stands at 180,206 and from today’s cases 242 are Kenyans while 5 are foreigners, and 164 are males, and 83 females with the youngest being a one year old infant while the oldest is 100”, he said .
He also announced that the Ministry of Health had put in place deliberate efforts to improve access to cancer services in line with the Universal Health Coverage agenda.
Through the Managed Equipment Service (MES), the Ministry has availed x-ray, CT-SCAN equipment, and ultrasound and mammography machines, to the counties to boost cancer diagnosis.
Speaking during the Covid 19 situation in the country, Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dr. Rashid Amn said the ministry has established 10 county chemotherapy centers, which are all operational and fully functional.
“During this period of COVID-19 pandemic we have continued to support these centers with appropriate cancer drugs to ensure continued service delivery”, the CAS added saying that Cancer as an underlying condition has so far see six patients of COVID 19 and who also were nursing cancer succumb.
Dr. Rashid noted that basic cancer care can now be accessed at a nearby county health facility and urged the cancer patients, on active treatment as well as those on follow up, to embrace and utilize these services.
He said Country marked an important milestone in the fight against cancer as the nation finally unveiled the Kenya Cancer Policy 2019-2030 alongside the Breast Cancer Screening Pilot Report as well as developed and disseminated the National Cancer Screening Guidelines to all the 47 counties.
Breast cancer, it is the leading type of cancer in Kenya, with about 6,000 new cases every year.
He later gave a breakdown of the Coronavirus infection patterns saying Nairobi county topped the with 153, followed by Mombasa 35, Kajiado 15, Busia 12, Kiambu 12, Uasin Gishu 4, Machakos 4, Garissa 4, Murang’a 2, Nakuru 2, Siaya 2, Lamu 1, and Nyamira 1.
The distribution of the cases by sub counties; in Nairobi, the 153 cases are in; Kibra (35), Westlands (28), Dagoretti North (16), Kasarani (13), Embakasi East (12), Starehe (10), Langata (8), Makadara (6), Embakasi South (5), Embakasi West (4), Kamukunji (4), Roysambu (4), Dagoretti South (3), Ruaraka (3), and Embakasi Central (2).
In Mombasa, the 35 cases are in; Mvita (17), Likoni (6), Changamwe (4), Kisauni (3), Jomvu (3), and Nyali (2). In Kajiado, the 15 cases are in Kajiado East (10), Kajiado North (4) and Kajiado Central (1). In Busia the 12 cases are in; Teso South (8), Teso North (2), and Matayos (2). In Kiambu, the 12 cases are in, Kiambaa (6), Ruiru (3), Thika (2), and Kikuyu (1). In Uasin Gishu, the (4) cases are in Ainabkoi (2), Kapseret (1), and Turbo (1).
In Machakos, all the 4 cases are in Athi River while in Garissa the cases are in Daadab (2), and Garissa Township (2). In Muranga, the cases are in Maragua and Kiharu, in Nakuru the two cases are in Nakuru West, in Siaya the cases are in Alego Usonga while the case in Lamu is in Lamu West and the Nyamira case is in Nyamira town.
Dr. Rashid said that today 39 patients have been discharged from various hospitals bringing bringing to 2,148 the total number of recoveries. However , 2 people have succumbed to the disease disease bringing to 154 our fatality in the country.
Dr. Patrick Amoth, Ag. Director General explained that currently the Covid patients In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU ) in the country is evenly balanced with 14 being in public hospital while 15 are in private health institutions. 13 of the 29 case are on ventilator support and remaining 16 getting supplemental oxygen.
The management of COVID 19 patients, he said is an expensive activity and according to a study recently done , one spends a total of 21, 300 on a daily basis to management an asymptomatic Covid case.
“For a mild case we would spend Ksh21, 400, per day, for a severe case that will require supplemental oxygen will see the figure rising to Ksh 51,000 and if critical and require ventilatory support it will shoot to Ksh 71,000 per day”, he said
Dr. Amoth noted that these figures are not sustainable in the long run , and would overwhelm and impoverish the people going further with a major driver being PPEs which has to be donned every time a patient is seen
The same study the DG said shows that home based care is 9 times cheaper than institutional care and its with that in mind that the home based care guidelines were introduced to remove the burden of health care and also economic burden of keeping people in hospitals.
By Wangari Ndirangu
