Alarm as daily Covid cases exceed 100 for first time in four months

Covid vaccination

Mary Kusa Naomi receiving Covid-19 vaccination at Dagoretti Deputy County Commissioner's offices on February 3, 2022.

Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

The country recorded 128 Covid-19 cases yesterday and a positivity rate of 5.6 per cent, the highest in four months.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Health, 128 people tested positive of the disease from a sample of 2,303 tested in the last 24 hours bringing the total confirmed cases to 324,686.

Nyeri County led in the number of positive cases, recording 68, Nairobi 54, Kiambu and Kisumu two each while Kakamega and Siaya one each.

However, no fatality was recorded. The country has since lost 5,651 Kenyans to the virus. The experts, however, said that it is unlikely that the country will record a huge caseload and intense community spread like it was in the previous waves.

“We can certainly rule out seeing a huge number of hospitalisations and deaths because most of the vulnerable people are vaccinated and we have community immunity from past infections,” 

Dr Ahmed Kalebi, a consultant pathologist said the figures are not quite alarming as it is probably the highest Covid-19 caseload and positivity rate for the current flu season with the peak expected around the end of the month.

“We will not see the numbers rising so much but that does not mean that we do not need to take care. We should observe the preventive measures and where our masks to be safe,” he said

The numbers are increasing at a time when very few Kenyans are going for vaccination, with the country testing only travellers.

On Saturday, only 4,712 doses of vaccines were administered with 31 per cent proportion of adults have been fully vaccinated.

Some 18 million vaccine doses have been administered across the country, 16.4 million to adults, another 1.4 million to those aged between 15 and 17, 34,226 for those below 15 years while 355,015 doses are booster.

The Lake Region Economic Bloc committee recommends mass vaccination exercises to attain a 70 per cent rate up from the current 31 per cent.

“Many Kenyans are not going for their booster shots, it is advisable that fully vaccinated individuals whose booster shots are due should visit vaccination centres to get the boost,” Prof Khama Rogo, the chairman of LREB committee said.

 “We are still lagging in testing and vaccination, we have gone really down and this may affect us should we experience a stronger wave,” Prof Rogo said.

So far, only Nyeri County has fully vaccinated over 51 per cent of its population followed by Nairobi at 49 per cent and Kakamega at 39 per cent.

Dr Patrick Amoth, acting Director-General, Ministry of Health, said the virus is still in the community and Kenyans should be vigilant. “We have not defeated this yet. We have the virus with us and we should continue observing the measures and ensure that we remain safe,” Dr Amoth said.