Covid-19 deaths: Elderly bear the brunt in Nairobi
Public health officials carry the body of of a man who died of Covid-19 to his grave at Antuanthenge village in Meru County on August 25, 2020.
What you need to know:
- Kenya confirmed its first Covid-19 case in March last year and by August 4, a total of 1,258 deaths had been reported in the capital city. Kenya’s death toll by that date was 4,025.
Individuals aged between 55 and 74 years continue to bear the brunt of Covid-19 deaths in Nairobi, the majority of them being men.
Kenya confirmed its first Covid-19 case in March last year and by August 4, a total of 1,258 deaths had been reported in the capital city. Kenya’s death toll by that date was 4,025.
Out of this number, the 55-74 age group accounted for 536 - almost half of all the fatalities recorded in Nairobi.
One hundred and fifty three deaths were recorded in the 60-64 age group while 147 were recorded in the 55-59 group, 133 in the 70-74 group and 103 in the 65-69 group.
According to Nairobi’s Covid-19 pandemic data outlook report by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), men accounted for 69 percent of the recorded deaths at 861 while the rest - 397 - were female.
The data for the period between March 12, 2020 and August 4 showed that 657 of the patients who died had comorbid conditions while nine did not have any. The data on 592 people was missing.
In terms of sub-counties, Kibera led with 217 fatalities, which is almost double the number recorded by other sub-counties in Nairobi.
Westlands was second with 129 deaths while Dagoretti North recorded 119, Lang’ata 110, Roysambu 72, Ruaraka 62, Kasarani 60, Starehe 57, Makadara 55 and Embakasi West 52. The other seven sub-counties recorded less than 50 fatalities in tota.
Thirty nine deaths recorded could not be traced to any of the 17 sub-counties in Nairobi, the report stated.
Spike in infections
According to the report, a surge in positive cases has been recorded in the last six weeks, with 7,470 infections recorded in July alone. Only 2,319 cases were recorded in June.
Nairobi has reported at least 87,931 cases since the pandemic struck, out of the 211,028 cases Kenya had confirmed by August 8.
Males continue to bear the brunt of the deadly virus, accounting for 58 percent of the positive cases, with most of them - 53,638 or 61 percent - in the 25-49 age group.
Cases have been rising in the 30-34 age group for both males and females.
The vulnerable group, those aged 50 and above, accounted for 20,224 cases while those aged below 10 years of age accounted for 3,827 cases.
Lang’ata sub-county led with 9,531 Covid-19 infections and was followed by Westlands, Dagoretti North, Kibra, and Starehe in the top five.
The data revealed that 2,461 students and 523 teachers were infected with Covid-19 between March 12, 2020 and August 4.
Some 1,701 students and 327 teachers contracted the virus between January and August this year.
